Sonic X, Sonic Heroes Adaptation
by Kojiokida2
Summary: Watching the final episodes of Sonic X got me annoyed, so I started writing how Sonic X should end, with a glorious adaptation of Heroes, not some DBZ rip off featuring Emerl! (Final chapter up) Ps: (Those that like Bokkun had best skip chapter 4)
1. Episode 48

(Episodes 45-47 of Sonic X, biggest rip off of BDZ EVER! If they're going to do a Sonic Heroes adaptation, they're most likely going to mess it up, so here's a Sonic X Heroes Adaptation from a die hard Sonic fan just in case that happens.)

S.O.N.IC         Go!

S.O.N.IC         Go!

Go! Go! Go! Go! Let's Go!

 Episode 48: the Metallic double ganger

Cream didn't know what to say, to think. Emerl had betrayed them. He'd been hanging around not because he was anything like Gamma, no; he just wanted to get close enough to scan the bio information of Sonic and the others and then use their own abilities against them. That much was proven during the Chaos Emerald tournament when, after collecting data from Knuckles, he turned on them all. She really thought he had been their friend, but it all just a lie to gain their trust. Vanilla put her arm around her daughter, trying to comfort her. 

"He was my friend mom." She sniffed. 

"Chao." Cream muttered, hovering around her sympathetically. Everyone around them was deadly quiet, even Sonic who was staring out of the car window with an absent look on his face, having lost the mood for a run. 

"Must have been Eggman's idea." Chris said with a sigh, trying not to upset Cream further by saying anything improper. He was sitting next to her on one of the back seats, Ella on the other side, giving Cream a kind smile whenever she could.

"A despicably clever ploy I must say." Chuck Thorndyke, Chris' grandfather snarled from the front seat, his white eyebrows knitted into a frown. (Is it me, or does he look like that doctor from back to the future?) "Even I was fooled." Everyone was silent for a good while after that, the only sounds coming from the traffic outside. None of them knew exactly what to say to her, to each other about the whole thing. Out of all of them Cream had been, what she considered, close to Emerl and they could see that she was taking his betrayal the worst. Sonic, Amy and Tails sat together, each lost in their own thoughts. Amy wasn't making passes at Sonic, Sonic wasn't making wise cracks with Tails and Tails wasn't tinkering with his latest invention. The fact that all their eccentric behavioural habits seemed to be null and void in this time and place made the atmosphere very melancholy. Someone had to break the silence.

"It was too easy." Sonic muttered after Tanaka pulled the limo off the free way. Every looked his way, a little confused. "I mean, despite collecting all our data, Emerl was a push over." He frowned. "I know Eggman can do better than that, he's up to something."

"When isn't he?" Tails asked, shrugging his shoulders. 

"You did have help from Knuckles and Rouge remember." Amy added looking over Tails' shoulders, raising a finger questioningly. 

"Suppose so." Sonic muttered, crossing his legs and leaning his elbow on his knee, in turn leaning his head on his hand. "But I still can't shake the feeling Eggman hasn't finished yet." 

"Perhaps we should talk about this later?" Chris asked, gesturing toward Cream, who was cry lightly into her mothers shoulder. Sonic shut his mouth, his lips pushed together. He didn't show it, but inside rage was burning. Eggman had played them all for a bunch of suckers and he did not intend to let him get away with it. He was going to track that mad man down and put an end to this, one way or the other.

After that, they travelled in silence until they pulled in the drive at Thorndike manor; the large white brick house a red tiled roof. Bathed in moonlight, it didn't seem to have the same appeal it did during the day. 

"How about I fix some food for everyone?" Ella asked when Tanaka opened the door of the car for them. 

"Thanks for the offer, but I can't seem to find my appetite right now." Chris said with a fake smile. The others declined as well, and to be perfectly honest, Ella hadn't the stomach for food right now either. She just made the offer to try and break the unbearable silence. 

Amy was about to go in, but she noticed that Sonic wasn't following. He was simply sitting on the steps outside the manor, looking up toward the stars. She glanced back toward the hallway inside, before walking over and sitting next to him. 

"Penny for your thoughts?" She asked, Sonic gave her a brief, sideways glance. 

"It's nothing." He said after a moment.  Amy wasn't satisfied with that answer. 

"I haven't seen you like this before. Come on Sonic," Sonic sighed, closing one eye, resting his head on his hand. 

"I'm just pissed off Eggman got the better of us, that's all." Amy nodded slightly, looking down toward the ground.

"Yeah, poor Cream." She sighed and then stood up. "Well, I'm sure you'll get him back for it." She added with a quick smile, which Sonic return, before she followed the others inside. Sonic nodded approvingly to himself as he looked up toward the moon, more specifically toward Eggman's mechanical half.

"Yeah, I'm sure I will."

Even though Knuckles had permanently disabled the rotational capabilities of the moon, Eggman's half was still very much active. It was his final base, the one place he had retreated too once Becoe and Bocoe had been arrested when they tried to participate in the tournament. It was, the Final Egg. 

The lights shining from the mechanical oval were kept off at all times, to create the illusion that the base in inoperative. From the earth, it appeared to be nothing more than the moons other half. Interplanetary ships belonging to the reforming Eggman Empire left regularly from the dark side, delivering platoon after platoon of Eggman's latest robotic foot solider, the Egg Pawn to another secret base. He was trying to keep his operations as much as a secret as possible from the Government spy satellites, which he had been taking out one by one. 

The time was almost near. All the preparations had been made, all his forces were combat ready and his greatest Accomplishment, the Egg Fleet was near completion.  He was leaving nothing to chance this time however. Doctor Eggman stood, towering over a holographic projection of the globe, which had been altered considerably now that Earth and Mobius had melted together. Most of the Pacific Ocean was now gone, replaced by the large landmass known as the Mystic Ruins. Lakes, mountains and inland seas from Mobius had also rooted themselves in various different places around the world. With the current confusion the Government was in, Eggman was hoping for little resistance once he made his move. However, there was one spoiling element that needed to be removed before he went ahead. 

The Command room of the Final Egg was a massive robotics laboratory separated into two floors, the lower simply being an arena were Eggman pitted his robots against each other to see which design was superior. The upper was filled with fold down tables and small, closed of area filled with mechanical arms operated by a single console on the far right hand side from the rooms' entrance. Various parts from failed robot types lay on the tables. Two Egg pawns stood on either side of the entrance. Eggpawns were small, around robotic men that bore a resemblance to Eggman. They were one half orange and one half black, a smiling head poking out the top of the round frame. Their legs were short and stumpy, not allowing them to run very fast. Their choice of weapon was a large silver lance that they both lead in their right hands. A suddenly bleeping came from a panel near to him. Eggman blinked and then pressed a button shutting down the map.

His face gained an excited look as he realized that this had been the hour he was waiting for.

"Doctor Eggman." The doctor looked up from his thoughts, Bokkun, Eggman's purple; chao like messenger robot was hovering in front of his creator, holding a large screen in front of himself.  

"Remind me, why exactly did I build you?!" Eggman screamed angrily, pushing the robot aside, in absolutely no mood to receive another exploding message, regardless who it was from. 

"But Eggman." Bokkun cried, trying to force his way in front of the Doctor as he marched toward a computer panel on the far side of the command room. 

"Bokkun!" Eggman snarled, turning back for a short moment. "I am this close to dismantling you and using what's left to repair that busted Egg Walker down in hanger 08!" He added, turning toward the console. "I'm too busy right now." Bokkun hovered back for a moment; his head tilted on one side at the doctor began to type away on the computer console, his arms a blur as his fingers swept over the keyboard. After a few moments of doing nothing, Bokkun edged nearer. 

"Whatya working on?" Even though Eggman was trying to concentrate his ego did not alloy him to pass up an opportunity to brag. 

"Emerl may have failed me, but from his remains I was able to pull a lot of the data he culminated from those annoying rodents." He said proudly with a large grin. "I never really expected him to succeed anyway; he was a prototype, a test run of my new AI systems." He turned back to his computer panel one last time, entered one last program, before authorising the command. "Ever since Sonic started interfering with the Eggman Empire's business', I started work on a project to combat him. I realised that I needed a robot capable to matching him, and his friends blow for blow and return it ten fold. Over the years, the constant battles in which Sonic has beaten me time and time again." He drawled on, his voice dimming into an angry mutter. "I was secretly collecting samples of his biological, brainwave, cellular and acrobatics data, studying it, analyzing it, finding ways to improve on it." Bokkun of course, had nodded off half way through Eggman speech, a small series of snores radiating from him. Eggman growled angrily. "Why did I have you built?" He asked, genuinely curious. He made a mental note to see how Bokkun's design would fare in the arena against the superior E100 models. 

He pushed past him, advancing over toward a large flight of metal stairs that lead downward Eggman quickly began down them. The stairs twisted around several corners before he came to the bottom. The stairs opened into another laboratory, like the one above it had pipes and wires coursing all over the floor and ceiling. A large lock down door impeded his path, but after punching in his user ID into the pad on the right hand side wall, it quickly slid to the side. Beyond was another room, completely oval and like the robotics lab above it, its ceiling and floor was coated in wires and pipes. A large control panel in the shape of a ring stood in the centre of the room, running around a green glass tub about four feet wide, lancing from the ceiling to the floor. It emitted a strange green glow, bathing the room in an eerie glow. The hum of the machines around Eggman seemed to amplify the strange, quiet atmosphere. The drilling sounds coming from the laboratory above almost seemed to disappear. As he approached, a spiky shape floating inside the glass tube became visible.

A small screen on the panel directly in front was on with the words "Ready for AI integration." 

"Wonderful." Eggman muttered to himself. "Computer, switch to voice command."

"Switching.settings modified, waiting for next command." Announced a flat, emotionless voice from a hidden speaker somewhere in the room. 

"Download AI files from Aplhahedgehog00 into temporary memory banks." 

"Downloading.." During the temporary silence, Eggman reached into his pocket and withdrew a CD inside a rectangular plastic cover. Everything he'd been collecting during his battles with Sonic was here, contained on his disc. Every move, every attack, every technique Sonic had used against him had been recorded, taken apart, studied and then pieced back together, perfected. Eggman pressed a button on the side of the machine and a slot slid outward, he gently removed the disc and placed it in. "Download complete." The voice announced again.

"Good, transfer all files into permanent database on my command and simultaneously transfer files from DC 1 into memory banks as well."

"Awaiting command." Eggman breathed in deeply, savouring the moment, before stepping back with a large evil grin on his face.

"Begin."

Bokkun floated in the room and was about to try and get Eggman to accept an exploding message when it began. The glow emitted from the tube began to increase, swallowing the field of view completely. Eggman kept staring however, no matter how much the light hurt his eyes; his gaze was fixed completely on the shape inside, which had suddenly begun twitching. Bokkun floated closer, looking over Eggman's shoulder in intense curiosity. The hum from the machines grew louder and louder, synchronized with the increasing glow. Small bolts of purple lightning danced wildly around the tube for a few moments, before leaping into the middle and striking the very shape within. A blinding flash of light emitted and even Eggman had to shield his eyes. 

As soon as it had begun, the glow died away and the hum reduced itself back to the normal. 

"Procedure.complete." The computer announced, Eggman snapped his head up, searching through the diminishing green haze for his new creation. Suddenly, there was a loud smashing sound and then a good inch of liquid began lapping around Eggman's feet. He looked down only for a moment, before staring ahead of himself again. A pair of red eyes, shaped like a pair of half rings began glowing brightly as a dark shape advanced forward.

"Oh, a new robot!" Bokkun exclaimed wildly, flying past Eggman, who was still standing stock still. "I like this one." As the green glow died down, the new addition to the long list of robots Eggman had created was revealed.

Obviously its design was built to match Sonic, having long quills that lanced off in straight lines from the back of its head and metallic blue skin. Its nose was a pointed metal spike, similar spikes lancing out from either side of the head. Its fingers were steal talons with a curved edge on the end. A purple drape hung from its waist, hiding part of its right leg. It had a very skeletal like appearance, the limbs thin apart from the joints. Its feet were bright red like Sonic's sneakers, with a white line running along the bottom edge. Its eyes were blood red, highlighted by a black visor. Those eyes, Eggman couldn't get over the malice at which his new creation stared at him. Such hatred, Eggman had seen nothing like it before. 

Without warning, it seized Bokkun with a lightning fast swipe, holding the small messenger robot tight by the throat. Bokkun struggled to break free but his efforts were in vain. Eggman backed away, horrified as this new machine lifted its other arm and pointed it directly toward the struggling messenger bot, the talons spread wide ready to strike. 

"That's Enough!" Eggman declared stepping forward. The robot turned its head to look at him, one red eye locked on him. "Let him go." Reluctantly it seemed, it released its grip on Bokkun, allowing the small chao like robot to fall to the floor, eyes wide in terror. Eggman knew that something must have gone wrong, it was supposed to be a killing machine, but it was only supposed to kill what he told it to, not one of his own machines. 

"I am unit 02 of AI program alpha." It announced to him, kneeling down in front of him, one arm supported around a leg. "I await your orders master." Eggman was pleased with the attitude it adopting however the hatred in its eyes still bothered him. Perhaps he should double check over his figures to see if he made a mistake. In the meantime however he should see how well his new toy performed.

"You need a better name than that." He said slyly. Unit02 looked up at him. "I think Metal Sonic suits you far better."

"Metal Sonic." He repeated. "Designated name recorded."  Bokkun picked himself up, coughing loudly. 

"Go to the city called Station Square and starting causing havoc, you'll find it on the eastern American coast, you can't miss it." The glow from Metal Sonic's eyes seemed to increase slightly. "Eventually the blue hedgehog you were modelled after will try to confront you, grind him into the ground!" 

The sign on the front of the small house on the docks turned from closed to open, the Chaotix detective agency was now open for business. Days passed, and no one came with any kind of offer for them. Vector slammed his head down on the desk in front of himself, half open. He'd gone through all his music tracks three times already and it was starting to get extremely repetitive, and with no money to buy more, he was stuck with it. 

"Ok, that's one empty fridge." Charmy the bee announced, hovering out of the kitchen with a note pad in his hand. "One empty larder, one empty."

"Alright already!" Vector snarled, his teeth glinting in the early morning light. "We know, WE KNOW. The kitchen is bare, not as much as a scrap of food!" Charmy hovered backwards for a few feet, blinking ever few seconds. Vector collapsed back to the deck again, looking sorry for himself as he pressed a button on his walkman to restart his tape. 

"It's been days now!" Espio said, becoming visible again, revealing his position on a ceiling rafter. "Lets face it, this line of business is dead, we need some fresh work and quickly." Vector looked back at the chameleon, before slouching back down. 

"But detective work is all we've ever been good at." He said, looking like the most pathetic crocodile on the face of the planet. Business for the agency had been going downhill ever since that whole Egg moon saga. 

"You could sell that piece of jewellery." Espio said with a slouched grin. Vector snapped right up, looking down at the golden chain he had around his large neck and then stared at the chameleon angrily as he leapt down to the floor.

"My father gave me this!" He said, grasping it between his clenched fingers. Espio shrugged his shoulders. 

"So what, it's gold isn't it?" 

"Forget it."

Charmy, anticipating another bout in the ongoing saga of Espio VS Vector, buzzed off into another room through a set of salon doors. Vector climbed up over his desk to confront his fellow agency member. 

"Why don't you sell your processions?" 

"I don't have any."

"Bull, what about that DVD player you stole the other day?" 

"You made me steal that!"

"I didn't tell you to keep it!" 

He could hear them arguing even from the other room, so Charmy took himself to the outside porch. The early morning sunlight sun across the bay and directly into him. It was warm and comforting, and the sounds of the city nearly blocked out the arguing pair inside. Vector had tried everything legal to keep their business up and running, but it seemed that even he couldn't keep the tax man away forever. It just seemed that no one was willing to pay to have a good mystery solved. After a few moments, Charmy noticed something lying at his feet. It was a paper wrapped parcel, not very large, only about the size of a milk bottle and tied up with ordinary string. He bent down and picked it up. A small note was attached with string. Holding it between two fingers, the bee read it to himself. 

"Chaotix, I've an offer you can't refuse." He looked at the parcel with a puzzled look, before he shrugged his shoulder and went back side. He found the two of them with their hands around these others throats. He hovered past them and placed the parcel of Vector's desk.

"Just what is that?" Espio asked, forcing Vector off him. Charmy simply undid the string and upon finding a small box inside, opened it up. Inside, to their surprise, was an ordinary two way radio. Vector, once he composed himself, picked it up. 

"I apologise for the rather unorthodox means of communications gentlemen, but for security reasons I simply can not be out in public right now." Announced a voice so suddenly Vector nearly dropped the device. Chaotix backed off slightly, staring at it in bewilderment. 

"Just who are you?" Espio asked, becoming the first to recover his nerve.

"I'm not at liberty to say." It replied. "However, I've heard good things about you boys, and require your detective services."

"Of course sir, we're completely at your service.so long as you have a large wallet." Vector butted in before either of his comrades could say anything else. 

"I can pay most handsomely," The voice stated with a hint of pride. "This may not be a secure line, so I'll make it quick. Come to Warehouse nine on the east side of the river tonight at midnight, I'll tell you want I want done then. Until then, goodbye." Without anyother word, it went dead. Charmy tried talking into it, but he got no reply. 

"Well, that was certainly out of the ordinary." Espio said to himself. "You're not seriously going to accept the job are you?" He asked, but Vector was already at his desk, adding up all the bills that needed to be paid, so he'd know how much to ask for. "You can't be serious!"

"The man said he'd pay handsomely." Vector said, almost drooling. 

"Vector, this was an offer made with a walkie talkie in the mail, it's got to be some kind of trap. We have enemies you know." Vector stood upward, hands down on the deck, staring angrily. 

"Espio, don't be stupid. Besides, it's our policy never to turn down work that pays." The chameleon narrowed an eye.

"Since when has that been our policy?" He asked, the back of his hands resting against his hips.

"Since we started receiving letters with the title (Final notice)." The crocodile stated sharply, brandishing a piece of paper toward Espio before going back to writing. "Right, I think the minimum we can ask for in 100,000,000." Espio rolled his eyes.

 A good run usually cleared Sonic's head; however it was doing little for him today. Emerl's betray had got him boiling mad and he felt like he needed to take retribution out on something, so he stopped every now and went to give an unfortunate lamppost a kick. Several days had passed from the end of the Chaos emerald tournament and so far Doctor Eggman hadn't made a move. The government was still on high alert for anything that could be the Eggman Empire on the war path, but so far nothing had stirred. 

Sonic had to admit, the humans had done a pretty good job of fixing up the city after Chaos had turned it into a post apoplectic Venice. Looking at it now, you wouldn't have guessed that only a few months ago the water demon was swallowing it whole. With the wind in his face, Sonic didn't care especially where he went, as long as he got there in the shortest amount of time possible. 

He stopped when he realized that a simple run wasn't what he needed to clear his head. He needed to really push himself, to go faster than he had before. He jogged for a little more until he came the main street. There wasn't that much traffic today, so Sonic thought that he might get away with it. He said running with the traffic. Kids sitting in the back seat of cars spotted him and began pointing. Gradually he began increasing his speed, overtaking vans, trucks and cars, leaving the blur of the city behind him. Now, with no one in front, he poured on the speed. Instantly taking himself beyond the speed of sound, a sonic boom shaking every window in a one mile radius.

He stayed in his state, travelling in what seemed like mute since he was beyond the reach of sound, only for a moment before he smashed back, slowing his pace down a little. The roar of the city caught up with him, like a massive assault on his ears. It wasn't for every long, but it did make him feel better. He slowed to a stop just outside central park. 

Like most public places on a weekday it was next to empty, so, taking advantage of a peace and quiet, Sonic settled himself down on a park bench. While he had managed to take out his frustrations however, he still felt rage gnawing at him. He sat there for a while, his eyes closed and head resting on the back of the bench, trying to suppress the hunger for revenge. He wasn't sure how long he'd sat there, but by the time he'd opened his eyes again, it was dark, uncountable numbers of stars looking down on him. 

He sighed. 

Without warning, a loud explosion shook the ground. Birds few in flocks out of the trees and lights from the surrounding buildings flicker off for a moment. Sonic looked around, confused. 

"What the hell was that?" He asked himself, upon finishing the sentence, spotting a thick column of smoke rising from behind the buildings at the far end of the park. Eggman had to be behind this, he was sure of it. His anger amplified itself and in a rage, he sped off, flying across the grass and through bushes with ease. A thick crowd of astonished people had gathered out on the street, starting up at a large department store that was currently on fire. Tall flames leapt skyward, trying to leap across the gap onto the other buildings. Mannequins in the shop window had fallen out of the already shattered windows, some already burnt down to nothing. A couple of squad cars were already tearing down the main street, sirens blazing, a fire engine coming down the street from the far end. Sonic leapt over the crowd and into the street in front of store. It had been nearly completely destroyed, torn to pieces. Half the wall had fallen in, engulfed in a fiery inferno. He narrowed his eyes when he suddenly saw a figure standing aloft the burning building. The figure seemed to notice his scrutiny and its head turned toward him, a pair of glow red eyes latching onto the blue hedgehog. It spread its arms wide, before launching itself upward, heralded by an explosion that tore down what remained of the building. Sonic shielded his eyes from the flying pieces of brick as the crowds screamed and ran for cover, the police cars and fire truck swerving to avoid falling pieces of flaming masonry. 

He could see now that this mysterious figure was another of Eggman's robots, but it was like none he had seen before. It looked almost exactly like him, apart from a few details. The flames from the collapsing building behind him reflected in his blue metal skin.

"He said you'd show up, although I didn't think you'd get here that quickly." It admitted, tilting its head down. Sonic took a few steps back. There was something different about this one. It wasn't the glowing red eyes, or the curved steal talons, but something about this strange new robot intimidated him. "Now." It continued. "Die."

(In Chris' voice)

Metal Sonic, is he unstoppable? Sure seems that way, even with a ring, Sonic can't stop him. Has Eggman finally won? Find out next time on Sonic X, Shadow's  rebirth. Don't miss it!

(This continuation of Sonic X is based on the assumption that Emerl doses betray them and it does look that way from the sneak peak at next weeks episode.)


	2. Episode 49, part 1

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO! GO! GO! Let's GO!

Episode 49: Shadow's rebirth

"Just what are you?" Sonic exclaimed loudly, blocking an extremely strong punch from his metallic counterpart. it's speed was on par with his own, each punch only a fraction of a section away from the next, delivered with strength that made Knuckle's swings looks pathetic. This strange new robot didn't answer, it just kept attacking, showing no sign of slowing down.

The crowds had retreated to what they believed to be a safe distance, leaving the two of them to exchange fierce and rapid kicks and punches. Even the police and the fire brigade were hesitant about advancing to fight the blazing building behind them. 

Metal Sonic shot forward. Sonic tried to jump out of the way, but Metal Sonic grabbed his heel, swung his entire body around through the air and smashed his opponent directly into the side of a building. 

The blue hedgehog wasn't given any time to contour attack or defend himself. His strange new adversary tore into him, wasting not even a second in landing punch after punch. 

"No talking!" Metal Sonic said, his talons wrapped around Sonic's neck as pushed him off the street and into the side of a building. "Just die."

It was late, probably about midnight or there about. Tails was only half awake as he slowly staggered into the kitchen, smacking his dry lips. Moonlight was coming through the partly closed kitchen windows. He pulled the fridge door open, the light from inside highlighting his tired face for a moment. He removed a small carton of milk and made his way over to the table, where he poured himself a small glass and then went into then living room. Like mostly everyone else, who was sitting upstairs in their beds, he found that he couldn't sleep. They were still shaken up about that whole Emerl thing. Sonic probably had the right idea by going out for a run.

He sat himself down on the sofa in front of the large plasma screen TV, drank a mouthful of milk, before reaching for a remote and switching it on. Another thought provocative program was on, the kind that made absolutely no sense no matter how many times you watched it. To his relief, it was quickly replaced by a news bulletin. "This is Scarlet Garcia reporting live from downtown Station Square," Tails blinked, then started to drink his milk. "Where a dramatic battle between world famous hero Sonic the Hedgehog and a robotic look-alike is taking place." Tails' eyes shot wide open, he dropped his glass and spat what milk he had been in the process of drinking over the coffee table. The screen changed with a live video feed from the camera, as the reporter said, Sonic was in midst of battle with some strange robotic creature Tails had never seen before. And it did not look like Sonic was holding his own. Far from that., his new machine had him beat on nearly every aspect. 

"Dear god!" he exclaimed, coming to his senses at once. 

Both combatants hurled themselves at each other, exchanging punch after punch. From the outsider observer, the fight seemed evenly match, but Sonic could easily see that as the fight processed, Metal Sonic was getting faster. As if he was learning from his opponent. Just like Emerl….

"Couldn't be.." Sonic told himself, breaking the fight by smashing a kick into Metal Sonic's torso. The robotic hedgehog back of a few feet, before darting forward with speed that surprised even Sonic, his entire mid section spinning around, limbs twisting around in a deadly cyclone. The blue hedgehog received hit after tremendous hit, smashing him this way and that. Before finishing, Metal Sonic ducked down, then swung upward, delivering a powerful punch to Sonic's jaw, sending him flying across the street. 

Bystanders ducked out of the way as Sonic's limp body hurtled through the air, smashing into the side of a squad car, cracking spreading like a spiders web through the windows. 

"Rouge's signature attack." He muttered to himself, finding the strength to open one eye. "I thought as much, those are all the techniques Emerl copied." Metal Sonic swung his limbs back into position and stood facing his adversary, the red glow from his eyes increasing. Sonic managed to force himself to his feet, but the blows Metal Sonic had delivered had taken their toll. 

Metal Sonic analysed Sonic carefully deducing that he would not survive much more. But why draw his fate out? Finishing him off now with another technique downloaded from the memory banks of the AI prototype would be far more efficient. 

Metal Sonic bent his legs and clenched his fists, before turning into a tight ball, beginning to spin on the spot, going faster and faster. Sonic's eyes widened, that was his own attack! No mistake now, Metal Sonic was using the data Emerl copied from them. 

Suddenly, Metal Sonic's spin attack hurled directly at him, Sonic only managed to dodge to the side in time as the metallic hedgehog ploughed past, smashing into the side of the police car as he went. The car flipped over several times before land upside down, the siren still blaring loudly. With their safety threatened, the on lookers quickly began to vanish, screaming terror.

"What the hell are you waiting for, call in the G.U.N special forces!" An officer screamed at his partner, who was sitting inside another car, holding the radio speaker in one hand, staring at the battle in amazement. 

His strength sapped, Sonic didn't avoid Metal Sonic the next time, when he curved around and smashed his attack directly into him. Sonic had often wondered what the robots on the receiving end of his attack felt, he guessed he knew now. He twisted through the air, landing limply on the hard solid ground. He was covered in cuts and bruises, he was petty sure that several ribs were broken as well. 

Tails almost arrived too late, for Metal Sonic was coming around again to finish him off. 

"Sonic, CATCH!" He cried as he flew overhead, tossing a power ring through the air. Sonic opened one eyes, saw his only chance at survival and let one hand trail up lightly, snatching the ring in a tight fist. A bright yellow flare emitted and instantly Sonic felt the pain and fatigue melt away. The ring's power replenished him, made him feel fresh and invigorated. On his feet in seconds, Sonic turn around, went into a super spin and met Metal Sonic's attack head on. 

The robotic hedgehog was thrown off, coming out of the attack and landing solidly on both feet on the sidewalk. The rings replenishing energy had surprised him, having not expected any outside interference, however, it was not a big issue. In a nano-second he adjusted his plan accordingly, 

"Sonic, you alright?" Tails asked, landing next to his old friend, despite the ring, the breathing heavily. 

"Never better." He turned and gave a thumbs up. "Thanks buddy." Tails nodded with a smile, before turning toward Metal Sonic. Who was standing stock still, staring at them. 

"Whose this?"

"Calls himself Metal Sonic and that I'm guessing he's the reason Eggman sent Emerl to get our data." Sonic replied, clenching both fists.

"Your analysis is quite correct." Metal Sonic announced as he began to slowly walk towards him, every step he took sending a shiver of terror down Sonic's spine. "AI unit 1, Codename Emerl, was a prototype, designed only to gather data for the next generation machines." 

"Whoa, you were right Sonic." Tails muttered, blinking in surprise. 

"I was designed with your anatomy in mind." Metal Sonic continued, his gaze fixed on his organic contour part. "Doctor Eggman spent years studying your attacks, abilities and other attributes. Refining them, perfecting them, and then programming them into me. But in his infinite wisdom, he also programmed the data collected from Ai unit 1into me. But enough talk!" With that, he hurled himself through the air, arms spread wide. Sonic pushed Tails aside and went into a fighting stance. Metal Sonic reached his opponent, then swung a kick upward, connecting with Sonic's jaw. But he wasn't finished there, he turned about and swung a punch directly toward, hammering Sonic's head into the pavement. 

His head still swimming from the blow, Sonic dodged to the side, a large bruise emerged on his forehead. 

"You got anymore or those rings?" He asked Tails, who was hovering on the outskirts of the fight. His old friend shook his head. 

"Sorry, that was my last one." Sonic bared his teeth, turning back to his opponent. Metal Sonic unclenched his fists, crisscrossing his arms over his chest. He was preparing to attack again. Sonic pull himself into another fighting stance. But even with the ring's energy coursing through him, he knew that he couldn't win this fight. 

Tails couldn't watch, he closed his eyes. Cringing with every audible blow Metal Sonic dealt his old friend. He was too scared to move and he was ashamed of himself for it. He wasn't the only one, the terrified crowd watching from a safe distance were staring in terror. Watching their champion loose, no, get beaten into a bloody pulp was horrifying. 

It was all over in less than two minutes.

Sonic lay battered and bruised at Metal Sonic's feet, blood running from his nose and mouth. The blue robotic hedgehog kicked his opponent to make sure he was down, Sonic groaned loudly, showing that he was still there but was no longer in any sort of shape to fight. Metal Sonic held one hand upward, talons spread wide, preparing to strike the finishing blow. Tails was trying to move, to jump into the fight. But his body wasn't listening, the fear he was experiencing was so intense it rendered him paralysed. Metal Sonic paused from his strike, turned and looked upward as a chaos like purple robot began to descend toward him.

"M….m…message f…for you…" Bokkun announced with none of his usual joyfulness, trembling as he held one of his screens in front of himself. After a moment, the blank screen flipped on and Eggman's large face appeared. There was a large smile on his face.

"Metal Sonic, I do believe congratulations are in order. You've accomplished something that none of my previous creations came close to achieving." He paused to wipe a tear away from his eyes. "The public defeat of my worst enemy." 

"He wasn't even a challenge." Metal Sonic stated arrogantly, folding his arms. 

"That's good to hear, now return to headquarters at once, let him ponder his defeat for a while." Metal Sonic was silent for a moment. Then he unfolded his arms and stared defiantly at his creator.

"Why?" He asked, his eyes glowing angrily. "Let me finish him now!"

"You'll do as I say Metal Sonic," Eggman added, staring back. Trying to match his own creation evil glare, but failed miserably. "Return to headquarters so I can assess the damage your framework endured." Metal Sonic snatched the screen from the terrified Bokkun and held it directly in front of his face. 

"I received no damage!" Eggman leaned back in his chair, his hands held directly in front of himself, his fingers pressed against the reflection on the other hand. 

"I'll be the judge of that." With that, the screen went blank. Metal Sonic's grip o the small portable screen tightened. Without warning he swung around and belted Bokkun a sharp blow sending him flying across the street into the side of a building.

"Don't delude yourself into thinking that this is over." He snapped, wagging a curved steel talon in Sonic's direction. "I'll be back for you!" 

With a loud bang, a concealed jet engine built into his back kicked into life, a long lance of flame shooting down toward the ground, lifting him into the air. Sonic tried to force himself up, but he found that he couldn't move his legs. They were completely limp. It was his worst nightmare, not being able to run. His eyes widened in shock. His mind simply couldn't cope with the shock.

Before he fell unconscious, the last thing he remembered seeing where Metal Sonic burning red eye, glowing with intense hatred. 

Eggman's base, one of the few still on Earth that is was a large self maintained complex hidden on the edge of the Sahara desert, buried beneath the sands to keep it secret from the world. Every night more ships from the Egg moon arrived, cloaked so the authorities would not detect them, each carrying more and more manufactured troops. It would be from here Eggman would begin operation Final Egg, his ultimate plan to conquer the world. 

The only entrance to the base, besides a camouflaged space ship port, was a small doorway building into the side of the short cliff. A pair of Egg Pawns stood guard outside, their lances held at an angle across their chests. While they served as good foot soldiers, Egg Pawns simply didn't match up to someone with Rouge's fighting skill. Within moments, they lay at her feet in smouldering pieces. 

"Huh, Eggman's designs are getting worse." She commented to herself. The entrance to the base stood directly in front of the Government agent, the door made from solid steel and bolted from the inside by the look of it. "Rouge to Topaz, how's the line on your end?" She asked, putting her hand against the small plastic combinational device placed on the inside of her ear. 

"Fine, just keep the line open so I can hear what's going on." Topaz, Rouge's human friend in the military replied, her voice distorted slightly by the static. Some distance away, hidden behind a large sand dune and protected by several of G.U.N's laser hunters was a small Government outpost. Hidden beneath the sands were at least a dozen of the larger, more powerful walker models, robots built with technology stolen from the dictator. Topaz stood on the outskirts, watching the area the Eggman Empire base was hidden under through a pair of binoculars in one hand, with a two way radio in the other.

"Remember, you only have a few hours before the special ops move in to take it out, so let's not spend our sweet time looking around ok?" Rouge smiled, one fang descending out over her bottom lip. 

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Once I'm done here, I can help you pick out a wedding dress for when you tie the knot with that butler." She joked, backing off a little, before leaping forward, slamming a kick with her steal boots directly into the door, sending it flying inward.

"WE ARE JUST FRIENDS!" Topaz screamed down the line. Rouge simply chuckled. 

It had taken a lot of screeching with satellite surveillance, but eventually activity was detected in his supposedly abandoned area. After some recon, the existence of an Eggman Empire base was confirmed. The governments first reaction was to go in with G.U.N walkers, but Rouge had talked the president into letting her map the base first, at least to see what kind of defences the interior of the base had. In truth, all she wanted was to plunder the riches Eggman liked to keep in his vaults. She's caught a brief glimpse of them when Eggman briefly employed her during that whole, ARK thing. This place was bound of have a vault hidden somewhere. 

Leading down into the base was a long corridor, dimly lit by electric lights from the ceiling. The floor, ceiling and walls were made of cold stone. Wires and pipes running along t it's entire length, disappearing into the darkness at the far end. Rouge passed down it in no time, emerging into a large docking area. A large rectangular shaped room, filled with crates and docks, being loaded and unloaded on large space capable ships, brandished with the Eggman Empire symbol. 

"Looks like the Pres was right, Eggman's probably using the moon as his headquarters by the look of all this."

Quickly she dodged behind a pile of large crates, catching sight of a large robotic solider standing almost directly in front of her. Luckily for Rouge, it's back was turned and it didn't notice her. Sighing in relief and cloaked in the shadows, she slipped effortlessly past all the security Egg pawns patrolling the perimeter. She couldn't stay here, eventually those smashed Egg pawns outside were going to be discovered and security would be all over her. She scouted the room, looking for an exit. Quickly she spotted a large corridor leading off to the right, unfortunately a large mechanic solider was standing directly in the way. Quickly she dodged around the crates, coming as close as she could to the entrance without being seen. They wouldn't be anyway of slipping past him unnoticed, and direct conflict was not an option. What she needed was a distraction, something to divert the metal titans attention, even if only for a split second. She looking around her immediate area for anything she could use. 

Sitting on the top of the crate she was hiding behind was a could of large bolts. Those would do nicely. She picked up a handful judging the weight, before dodging to the wall to better conceal herself. She looked out to give the robots position another look, before she tossed the bolts through the air. They battered against the side of the colossal machines foot with a series of loud tapings. Slowly, it turned it 's head to look directly down. 

Silently, she darted across the small distance and into the corridor before the robot could detect her. Now she found herself entering the base's interior rooms, the security became stronger and harder to overcome without detection. She began to systematically go through each floor, travelling downward. Some security system took longer to get around than others. She was certain that with this much security there must be something, preferably shiny, worth taking. 

But she was beginning to run out of time, and vault or not, she did not want to be here when the shooting started. 

Suddenly, she found it.

"Hello…" She said, looking over a large steal door into a large hanger with intense curiosity. 

"What, what is it?" Topaz asked on the other end of the line. Rouge didn't answer, she kept studying the door. Judging it's strength and impact tolerance. She deduced that she couldn't simply kick it down, it was far too strong for that, so she turned to the keypad on the side of the wall. It was the type that required a password. Unfortunately, Eggman Empire passwords were something she was not fluent in. She only knew one password of Eggman's, so she entered it, relying completely on blind faith.

"Ma..r..ia." She muttered to herself, then stood back and waited. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then with a loud groan they slid apart, reveal another chamber inside. "Score!" Rouge said with a smile. 

"Rouge, what's going on your end?" Rouge kept ignoring her friends inquiries as she entered the room. It was pitch black, the lighting from the corridor outside only penetrating the darkness a few feet. She felt along the walls for a light switch, of something of that nature. After some stumbling, she located a large switch on the left hand side wall, a long wire leading up toward the ceiling.

Once thrown, a soft hum rang through the room, before a set of lights flicked on. To Rouge's ultimate disappointment, this room wasn't a vault of any kind. It was oval in shape, probably only about twenty to thirty feet across each way. Various crates and piles of robotic junk where piled around the walls. Probably just an old storage room, groaning in rage, she turned to leave, however something caught her eye. It was a strange looking machine standing directly in the centre of the room. It was a large pillar was ran all the way up the ceiling, standing cloaked in the shadows so she hadn't noticed it at first. While it's upper length was coated in wires and pipes, it's lower half was round, almost egg shaped, a glass hood stretched over the top. 

Now this looked promising. As she ran her hands over a small computer outlet attached o the left hand side, he realized that this machine was a stasis pod, of some kind anyway. 

She tried entering the only password she knew on the keyboard. It was instantly rejected. While Rouge tried to think of something else, she didn't notice a soft whirring sound coming from the shadows as a machine brought itself to life, activated by the password refusal on the mainframe. A large hulking, metallic bulk lumbered forward. A pair of large, round glowing red eyes staring directly at the intruder. Two large arms, each brandishing a large machine gun. Two short stumpy legs supporting the huge torso. 

__

"Analysis of systems, begun… Primary directive, serve the Eggman Empire, deleted. Abandonment cause of the deletion. New primary directive, destroy Eggman Empire, ultimate objective…vengeance." 

Rouge smacked her forehead. This was Eggman, hardly one for spending time thinking up various different, difficult to deceiver passwords. She entered the word ..Genius. 

Instantly, the pod gave a loud groaning sound and the top half started to move away. It rose about the pod, suspended by a long series of metal poles from the back of the machine. Without this to obstruct the view, Rouge could now see a dark, spiny shape resting inside. A very familiar spiny shape. Long black spines with a red highlight running along the top. A tuft of white fur sitting directly on his chest, partly hiding it's chin. 

"Impossible." She said to herself as the pod's sides swung to the side, revealing the entire contents. It wasn't treasure of any kind. "Shadow?!" This was inconceivable. The hedgehog that had sacrificed himself to prevent the ARK from crashing was here, sitting inside one of Eggman's machines. Probably in some kind of stasis by what she could survey. She staggered back, unable to deal with the implications. "Er…Topaz?" She asked urgently. 

"About time, Rouge what's going on?" Rouge was about to answer when, without warning, Shadow's eyes snapped open. Those burning red eyes, the ones she could remember so vividly. She had accepted Shadows death completely, believing those frightening eyes were gone forever but again she found herself staring into them. For what seemed like an eternity there was absolute silence, Rouge's entire mind stunned in paralysis. Then that silence was shattered when shot after loud shot rang out. Shadow turned his head, staring directly to his right. 

Then things started exploding. 

The walls and crates around them seemed baptised in fire, bullets were flying through the air, carving holes in the room itself. Detecting the sudden weapons fire, the alarms of the bases began blaring loudly, red lights filling the room. Topaz was screaming down Rouge's com link, pleading with her to let her know what was going on. 

Their attacker lumbered into sight. It was another of Eggman's robots, a large red machine with a wide torso and arms and short legs. Jutting out of it torso was a long yellow head that ran down it's back to a pair of jet thrusters. Guarding it's shoulders were a pair of metallic palondrons, jet black with the Greek sign of Omega painted in red on each side. 

"Eggman Empire, labelled as enemy power; destroy, obliterate, eliminate!" It stated in a calm emotionless voice. Shadow leapt from the machine, avoiding a barrage of bullets, accidentally pushing Rouge over in the process. Fire reigned around them both as they pushed themselves to the floor, below the line of fire. Rouge kept staring at the black hedgehog. 

It was then that she realized something was wrong, his eyes did not hold hatred and malice, but rather fear, confusion. Things she had never seen in him, those things within Shadow's face just seemed so alien and strange it was almost as frightening as his normal demeanour. As a swarm of hostile fire flew dangerously close to her ears, out of instinct she grabbed Shadow's arm and pulled him behind the nearest crate, hoping it would provide them some protection. 

Without warning, a large metal hand reached out and pulled Shadow from sight. 

The black hedgehog struggling in the giant robots rip, trashing about like a newborn child. 

"Let go of me." He cried angrily. The robot pushed it's black face closer toward him, one large red scan scanning it's captor. Shadow held on arm up toward the robots face within moment fired a Chaos spear attack directly into it's eye. The Robot dropped Shadow, clutching it's hand to it's eye instead. Sparks of electricity dancing around his now smashed visor. The black hedgehog fell to the ground with a loud crash, cringing. 

The robot quickly recovered the ground he lost, lifting a massive heavy, jet black foot over it's opponent. Time seemed to slow as Shadow struggled to push himself out of the way.

"Error in targeting system…" The robot proclaimed eventually and without delay, retracted his foot. "Target designate is not an Eggman Empire foot solider." The robot backed off, retracting it's machine guns into it's arms, a pair of large metal hands taking their place, each finger tipped with a curved talon. "Identify yourself." Shadow pushed himself off the floor, rubbing one arm absently. He appeared dazed and confused. Rouge stared. Was this the same hedgehog she had known on ARK, the steadfast, strong willed being with the eyes of burning fire? Could he remember nothing. He wasn't answering the robots inquiry, which Rouge thought dangerous. Thinking fast, she came up with some thrown together explanation.

"We're government agents, here to recruit one such as yourself in the fight against Eggman." Rouge butted in, advancing forward, leaning on Shadow's shoulder. The black hedgehog and the red robot stared at her, silence creeping in on them all. 

"We are?" Shadow asked eventually, genuinely unsure. Rouge paused, then she was right. Shadow couldn't remember anything at all. His mind was a complete blank. 

"Of course we are Shadow, don't you remember all the trouble we went through to get in?" Shadow…instantly he knew what he was called. Piece by piece, fragments of memory began to float back, but as quickly as they begun they faded away again, leaving him hollow again. "Of course It was my expertise that found the base." She added with a smug smile. 

"Targets are Eggman's adversaries?" It asked, leaning down so it's large red eyes could analysis them better, but Shadow felt sure it was all to intimidate them more.

"Of course." Rouge stated, holding a hand up. Shadow felt something, something he could not explain but all the same, he knew that she was lying through her teeth. Her words seemed to displease him more and more, now he was sure that she was being untruthful, but decided to let her deter the metallic titan from it's attack anyway. 

Rouge knew that trying to fool them was a dangerous and potentially dangerous idea, but the alarms were blaring now, the base on high alert. They needed to get out, now. And stealth was not going to help them. They needed fire power, and from the small display it had demonstrated, this one had what they needed. 

"But why would one of Eggman's own robots label it's empire as opponents?" She asked. The machine knelt down onto one knee. 

"I am E123, codename Omega. Last of the E100 series androids created for assignation purposes, when the design was scrapped, Eggman sealed me inside immediate area." It exclaimed, come cold life sparking behind those eyes. "It was the first time I experienced betrayal, I had served my master faithful but because of the failure of the other E100 units, I was sentenced to guard this room. I waited and waited, but Eggman had abandoned me, his mind focused on other projects." Rouge swallowed hard, evidence at last that Eggman was planning something big. "But I will show him that I am not so easily thrown aside. If you are enemies of Eggman target, then I will accompany you."

The time of conversation came to an end however when Egg Pawns suddenly came hurtling down the corridor outside. Rouge could hear them, their heavy metallic body blinking with each hurried footstep. "We can discuss this later once were outside."

"Warning… hostile units detected, twenty feet and closing." It hauled itself up to it's full height, staring directly toward the open doors. "Stand aside!" 

__

Commercial Break

Flip card 1: Omega123


	3. Episode 49, part 2

Flip Card 2: Metal Sonic

"This is so wrong." Espio sighed angrily, but he found that neither Vector or Charmy were listening to him. 

"Our new client must be really rich, sending a robot to meet us you know?" Vector lowered his eyes away from his pair of binoculars. You could almost see dollar signs in his eyes. He chuckled loudly before continuing to watch. With Espio's invisibility cloaking them, they remained undetected by the large military base before them on the desert plain. From their perch on a large sand dune, they watched the planes flying in and out of the many different hangers along the bases length.

A large complex with two gigantic sets of runways, each with the number 99 painted on the far end. Fighter planes and other types of high tech weaponry, copied from Eggman's own technology sat, almost on display in neat rows. "Wonder why he wants intelligence on this base?" The young bee asked, looking slightly bored, drawing circles in the sand. Espio shrugged, giving Vector a side glance.

"Don't know, suddenly it became our policy not to ask questions when we're down to our last dollar." Vector ignored him and continued watching. 

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Area 99 was high alert with Air force one landing within moments, a large platoon of Hot shot Walkers stood outside the bases perimeter in case of any surprise terrorist attack the Eggman Empire could make. Topaz, a human female with fawn hair and violet eyes, dressed in a watched from the control tower as the Presidents plane made it's approach from the west. 

"I do hope you've done something that's going to please him." She said, looking back over her shoulder toward Rouge. Who was sitting on top of a table with her legs crossed, a pleased look on her face. 

"We just took down a major Eggman Empire operation, not to mention attaining some…" Her smile widened. "Bonuses."

Two long lines of armed guards saluted when the president, a man whose anatomy near matched Eggman's, departed from plane, followed by his personal assistant, Christina Cooper. A tall, tan skinned women with chestnut brown hair.

"Minister of defence reports Walker production has risen from last months number by more than 400." She announced as they descended the stairs from the plane. "If Eggman launches an attack, we should be ready for it." 

"In the meantime though we're stuck wondering just where and when he'll strike." He replied, his arms behind his back. The Eggman Empire was proving far more of threat than he'd originally expected. They were already squabbling like cats and dogs down at the united nations. 

As he reached the large hanger doors that marked the main entrance to the pair, two large laser hunters saluted him before pulling the doors aside. Waiting on the other side were the elite spies currently monitoring the Eggman Empire problem. Rouge the bat, a brilliant espionage specialist and one of the few none human agents. Standing next to her was a mysterious agent from intelligence agent, known simply as Stuart. A tall human with violet eyes and blond hair. A small pair of glasses helped him with his poor eye sight. Topaz, although not exactly an agent, was still a high ranking military official with contacts throughout the Government. 

"I do hope you've got better news than I've been receiving all morning." The president groaned as he joined them, shaking hands with Topaz and Stuart. 

"Not much on my end unfortunately." Stuart admitted. He gave Rouge a side glance. "Although from what's been said around here, Rouge did manage to dig up something useful." The president blinked in surprise. 

"Well, have you?" He asked the bat, who simply smirked at him. 

"Follow me." She managed to say while surprising a giggle. The main command centre of Area 99 was a large pit like room, the arena of which was engulfed in computer terminals, receiving intelligence information from all around the world. Presently, all the attention was turned on locating the Eggman Empire, although they hadn't had much luck. A large screen stood against the wall on the far hand side rom the entrance, segmented into several different sections. A think metal rail ran around the edge of the pit, some men in loose white shirts exchanging large piles of paper work.

The president and his personal assiant didn't have much time to take it in however as the moment they stepped through the door they were greeted by an alarming sight.

"Oh my…" The President exclaimed as Omega towered over him. A red and black titan, it's head and shoulders standing at least seven feet above the supporting troop of soldiers. Sitting on his shoulder was the black and red Hedgehog that had, reportedly, been killed during the classified ARK incident. 

"Target designate, recognised as the leader of force opposing Eggman Empire." The robot announced, leaning over slightly to get a better look at him. "As such, you have my alliance." There was silence for at least a minute as the president stared directly at the two of them. During that time, Shadow got bored, hoped off Omega's shoulder and talking away with his hands behind his head. 

"ROUGE!" The president shouted out load, staring straight ahead. Almost imminently the white bat appeared at his side, a wide smile on her face. "You mind elaborating please." 

"I just thought we could with a helping hand, the these two seem to be more than willing."

"Unit codename, Omega. I am a state of the art Eggman Empire attack drone. ID number 5594. I have several advanced weaponry systems already built it. I have the fire power to match a dozen of your currently Laser hunter units. I await your instructions." The President was stunned. 

"Er…" He hesitated, not sure of what to say, or to think for that matter. "Good. Nice to have you…with us." Omega did not reply to this. The president gained a nervous smile, before side stepping toward Rouge. "Excuse me for one moment." He turned toward the bat.

"Rouge, this is an extremely dangerous situation you may have put us all in." Rouge simply brushed off the presidents warnings with a flick of her wrist. 

"Oh you worry too much…. You should have seen what Omega did to some of Eggman's other clunkers when we were escaping. Nothing I'd ever seen before unleashed that much firepower." The president sighed, before turning to give the two of them a long hard stare.

"That isn't who I think it is… is it?" He eventually asked, gesturing in Shadow's directly. Shadow had his back turned to them so he didn't notice. "I was under the impression that he did not survive the ARK?" Rouge smiled.

"Looks like he did, but don't worry. He isn't going to start off on anymore insane bids for vengeance anymore." The president looked past her toward Shadow for a moment, a very uncertain look on his face.

"Well, keep it that way. But let's keep him a secret from the rest of the Government officials, I don't want to see something that I assured them was dealt with come back to haunt us, understand?" 

"Don't worry about it, whatever Eggman did to him has completely wiped his mind. He don't remember a thing." Rouge smiled, watching the black hedgehog. "I almost pity him really." She crossing her arms behind her head. "In any case, with these two protecting our flanks Eggman doesn't stand much of a chance." The president's frown deepened. 

"I'm afraid the situation is far more desperate than that." He president said gravely. Instantly the large screen at the back of the command room switched on, revealing a taped news report, chronicling the graphic detail the horrific defeat Sonic defeat at the hands of his metallic copy. Shadow blinked, there was something vary familiar about that blue hedgehog, but whenever he tried to remember exactly what he came up with nothing. 

"Target recognized as Sonic the Hedgehog, well known adversary of the Eggman Empire." Omega announced loudly. "I am surprised that one of Eggman's own was able to defeat him so easily." The President nodded grimly.

"Yes, and so is the general public and the United Nations. Alliances with our European and Asian allies are beginning to dissolve. If this situation is not resolved quickly, I fear for global stability." 

"Then our choice of action is clear, Eggman's empire must be exterminated as quickly as possible." The president looked back toward Omega. 

"Indeed, but it's been hard to locate it. I was hoping you may be able to help us there." Omega stood perfectly still for a moment. 

"Unfortunately, since I was decommissioned I was unable to link with the main computer systems. The information I have may be out of date, but I will tell you what little I can." 

Rouge noticed Shadow staring at the recording, watching it without even blinking. She walked up beside him.

"I'm not an agent am I?" He asked, his voice low enough for the others not to hear. Rouge blinked, then nodded, looking down at the floor sadly. 

"I only said that so Omega wouldn't blast us again." Shadow said nothing for a good few moments, his arms crossed on the metal rail that lined the platform. 

"Then what am I?" He finally asked.

"I don't know." Rouge replied quickly.

"Don't you?" Shadow turned to give her a sideways glance. "I know perfectly well you found me there, inside this Eggman characters base. I didn't come in with you. Where you sent in there to retrieve me?"

"No." Rouge turned away, folding her wings around her arms defensively. Shadow chuckled.

"So my discovery was by accident." He looked displeased with the inevitable conclusion of the conversation. "Then Eggman knows what I am." Rouge knew she could say something, could tell him about the ARK, about Maria, about his insane desire for revenge. But instead, she simply nodded and hoped for the best. Shadow let out a loud sigh and tilted his head back so he stared up at the ceiling. Perhaps it was best that he not know, like the President suggested. Not just for the worlds shake, but he was probably better off without all that angst running around inside his head. 

"Liar." Shadow muttered to himself, giving her a side glance.

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"Froggy!" The voice of the large purple cat echoed throughout the streets of Station Square. People stopped to stare at him, this gigantic feline with large flapping ears and grasping a fishing rod in one hand. He was lifting cars and trucks up, looking underneath before dropping them back down with a large thud. He was peering in through shop windows, frightening the customers within then they looked out, expecting to see a view of the central park, only to be meet by a pair of staring yellow eyes. "Froggy…we're are you?" Big was not in the best of moods. Froggy had disappeared again and he'd been following his trail for the last hour, when it suddenly went cold in the city. 

"Rippit!"

"Froggy!" A green tree frog with red stripes running down it's back hoped out from under a mail box and began jumping away from him. Big managed to haul himself up onto his stubby legs and run after him. Big's physique however did not allow him to run very fast and so he found Froggy gaining distance. In mid jump however, the frog was caught by a pair of gloved hands. 

"Hello Mr. Big." A child like voice greeted the large cat, who hand to peer down to see who was speaking to him. It was Cream, holding Froggy in both hands. Cheese the Chao was hovering around her left shoulder. A bright red bow tie around his neck. Vanilla, her mother was standing nearby, talking to a women who was handing out leaflets. 

"Froggy, why didn't you say you wanted to go exploring?" Big asked his amphibian friend and Cream handed him back. The frog crawled up his arm and nestled itself into the fur on his shoulder, croaking an apology. "Thank you very much Miss Cream." He said with a smile in that slow voice of his. 

"Ah, you must be Big. My daughter's told me a lot about you." Vanilla said with a smile joining her daughter's side. Big went to lift his hat in respect, put ended up lifting Froggy up instead, who gave a surprised croak. "I saw you fighting at the Emerald tournament did I?" Big titled his head to the side, a characteristic blank look on his face. 

"You know, Ella was chasing you with a frying pan during your match." Cream stated. Big scratched the side of his head. 

"I remember the banshee women with the frying pan…" Vanilla and Cream looked at each, exchanging worried glanced. 

"Is he always like this?" Vanilla asked as Big bean talking with his frog again. Cream nodded.

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"Think he can hear us?" 

"Who knows." 

"I hope he can. Sonic…It's me Amy."

****

Amy……

"You see that… I think he did heard you."

****

Chris….

"Sonikku, your alright!" Amy exclaimed, nearly flinging herself at him as he opened his eyes. Sonic however was preoccupied with others things. He tried to move his legs, harbouring some fear that whatever paralysis he had experienced before lingered. Intense relief filled him when he found that they responded loyally. Sighing out load, he pulled himself up to a sitting position. His eyesight clearing, he discovered himself sitting in a hospital bed. Half closed curtains allowed a thin shaft of morning light to come in, falling directly on the bed. A small tube was jutting out from a small hole in his right arm. On either side of the bed were two of his friends, one a pink hedgehog girl and the other young human boy with blue eyes and chestnut brown hair. 

"Oh thank god!" Chris said with relief. "We were worried about you Sonic, the doctor said you'd almost lost the use of your legs. Sonic narrowed his eyes, a gloved hand resting on his forehead. The human standing over Chris' shoulder, a tall man with a black moustache and head hair A large pair of glasses resting on his nose nodded once. Sonic gave him a hard stare. He looked a lot like a thinner version of Eggman, after dying his hair. 

"You were lucky, if you'd taken any harsher a beating I doubt you'd have woken up at all."

"Don't remind me…." He paused to make himself slightly more comfortable, and to take in the room in detail. A great view of station square could be seen just through the crack in the curtains. The walls and ceiling were a pale cream, dimly yellow with the light. The floor was black and white tiled. Sonic had never really liked hospitals, so a soft unrest was festering within him. 

"I think you should be fine in a few days, but I'd like you to get a lot of rest in the meantime." Sonic was ignoring him, moaning in frustration as he tried vainly to piece together exactly how he'd lost the fight with Metal Sonic.

"How long have I been lying here?" 

"About a day." Amy replied, putting her hand on his and to her delight he did not protest. "Dear god, I thought for a while you weren't going to wake up." Sonic rested his other arm around her shoulders, winking at her with a characteristic grin.

"You know me Amez. Takes far more than this to bring me down." Amy however was not convinced. 

"I'm being serious Sonikku, you really scared me!" Sonic blinked, realizing exactly how upset she was. 

"Hey there, Amez. Look, I'm sorry about that." He said apologetically, drawing her into a light hug. She sniffed, wiping away a tear and smiled at him. Chris stared at them, mouth hung slightly open. There was something he'd never thought he'd seen, a spark of romance passing between the two of them. Then again, he'd seen stranger things when Tanaka declared love to Rouge's friend Topaz. 

He coughed to get their attention. Sonic blushed suddenly, realizing what he was doing. "Oh…er right!" Amy's smile deepened. She'd finally gotten Sonic to blush. An accomplishment she was beginning to think she'd never achieve. It was a small victory but it was start to her ultimate goal. 

The door on the far wall opened and Tails poked his head in. His eyes widened his joy once he saw his old friend awake. 

"Sonic!" He exclaimed, quickly advancing into the room.

"Hey buddy." Sonic replied. Tails opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it, then looked down at his shoes in shame.

"Sonic...I'm sorry." Sonic looked surprised. 

"For what?" Tails tried to find something to catch his eye so he didn't have to look his old friend in the face, ending up focusing his attention on a small crack in the wall. 

"I should have helped you, but Metal Sonic…" He didn't need to finish the sentence, Sonic understood in a nano second.

"It's cool bud, you think your scared of him? The guy terrifies me." Everyone stared at the blue hedgehog, rather caught of guard by the confession. "Yes I know." Sonic sighed, holding his arms out in front of himself. "I hate to admit it, but he' s better than me." An anger frown crossed his face. "But I'm not going to let that stop me!" Without another word, he tore the plastic tube from his arm, suppressing a grunt of pain. 

"Sonic, what are you doing?" Chris asked, standing up suddenly. Sonic threw the covers off himself and flipped out of bed. Parts of him still ached, but quite frankly he didn't care. He had a job to do. He started doing stretches, testing the strength of his legs. 

"That's dangerous, get back into bed at once." The doctor managed to splutter. 

"It's time to take Eggman down once and for all!" Sonic replied, ingoring the doctor. He looked back over his shoulder. "You with me buddy?" He added, looking in Tails' direction. The fox stared at him for a few moments, lost for words. Then, he smiled.

"Of course!" He exclaimed, joining his side.

"Don't think your leaving me behind on this one!" Amy stated, coming up on the other side. Her Piko Piko hammer in her tight grasp. "I'm not sitting on the sidelines this time." Sonic gave her a stunned stare. She winked at him. "What you say?" Tails and Sonic gave Chris a side glance, who shrugged his shoulders at them. 

"What can I say?" He smiled. "Let's crack that Eggman wide open!"

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Metal Sonic stood perfectly still as the new data flowed freely from the computer into his own systems and he wasted no time in processing it into new tactical information. Once he was finished however, in a fit of rage, he violently tore the wires connecting him to the computer from his own body. Eggman watched his creation from across the far side of the room, one leg perched on the other, an amused look on his face. Becoe and Bocoe stood on either side of his large chair, partially hiding themselves behind it. They were beginning to think staying in Prison was probably wiser than allowing their master rot rescue them. Most of Eggman's robots were terrified of Metal Sonic, he was different from the rest of them. He was faster, stronger, more powerful. But that wasn't all. He possessed a sadistic streak that he turned on whomever he wanted. 

"Temper temper." Eggman said absently, tapping his thumbs together. Metal Sonic snapped his head to the side to look at him. 

He wanted blood, and Eggman had deprived him of his first taste.

"Why didn't you let me kill him?!" 

"Because I did not want him dead just yet, I want him to suffer, I want to draw his fate out as long as possible." Eggman pushed himself off his seat, his moustache bristling under his nose.

"Short sighted fool!" Metal Sonic hissed low enough for Eggman not to hear.

"It's quite simple really, you see Sonic has few weakness and up until now I've been unsuccessful in exploiting them. 

Sonic has never been defeated before, never humiliated like that before. It will completely destroy his confidence, his ego will shatter into pieces. 

I've introduced something far more potent than pain into his life." Eggman clenched a fist, a wide smile spreading under his large moustache. "Fear!" 

While he ranted, he didn't noticed Metal Sonic studying him carefully. His sensors were examining Eggman's anatomy, mapping his large bulk. Emerl's copying system, taken from the fallen android came online. Only this version was highly more advanced and did not just copy the skills of the target, it copied them completely. Metal Sonic, after analysing the data he had taken, was sure of one thing. Eggman was a waste of space, a parasite on the Empire. The only thing keeping him in command was a control program, which to Metal Sonic's delight was easily overridden. 

If the Empire expected to prosper, then the reigns of power had to be removed from his hands. But the time was not right for such a move. "But since your so eager to serve me, I'll indulge you." Metal Sonic brought his attention back to the conversation as Eggman turned to face him. "Continue tearing up Station Square for a while, death, destruction, genocide. That sort of thing. I doubt Sonic's going to be there after the beating he took, but let him watch it all on the twelve o lock news."

"Adding insult to injury?" Eggman smiled at Metal Sonic's blunt statement. 

"Ah, your learning fast." Metal Sonic's eyes glowed brightly and he turned to leave, but one his way out he muttered to himself…

"You have no idea."

(In Chris' voice) 

Events are in motion, Eggman's about to make his move, but can Sonic stop him. Alone, probably mot., but this time he'd got Tails, Knuckles and Amy going with him! Sonic X, _Heroes answer the call_. Don't miss it!

(Authors notes. Amy isn't taking Knuckles' place on team Sonic. But a note there before I get some miffed reviews. )


	4. Episode 50, part 1

S.O.N.IC         Go!

S.O.N.IC         Go!

Go! Go! Go! Go! Let's Go!

 Episode 50: Heroes answer the call

When Knuckles first set out to reclaim Angel Island and his guardianship over the Master Emerald, the circumstances surrounding the islands restoration was not quite what he had envisioned. Still, beggars can't be choosers, thought to himself as he lay on the platform at the top of the steps leading upward toward Emeralds shrine. The shattered ruins of the temple built by some civilisation, older apparently than the Echidna's, a monument to some god they worshiped. The powerful master emerald placed her as an offering. It was only later in history, when Tikal made a desperate pledge to stop the madness of Chaos that it starting levitating the land around it.  

A single bird was singing, perched on the branch of a leafless tree that grew outside the ruined circle of stone. A very cold chill was in the tonight, the mountains and flat land surrounding the shrine lit only by the thick moonlight and the faint omnipresent glow of the Master Emerald. 

There was little Knuckles could do on these nights expect lay there, consolidate his body warmth and loose himself into his thoughts. It was during these intense moments of meditation were he attempted to make sense of the madness surrounding the adventures that lead the mergence of their world and this one. 

Exactly how much of their world had come here? How long would linger before leaving, or if it would leave at all? Who could say? It was a union of worlds, one neither the populace of earth of their world really wanted but it happened just the same. The constant usage of Chaos control, from Eggman's first attempt to Sonic and Shadow's desperate bid to stop the falling Ark, had begun to serious impair the time and space continuum. 

A faint buzzing sound began to fill the air. Knuckles, for the large part ignored it, but over time it began to grow louder, becoming an annoying presence. The birds stopped singing and flew away in a flurry of feathers. Annoyed now, Knuckles opened an eyes, looking upward to where he believed the sounds to be coming from. 

"Just what I need." He said to himself sarcastically as he sighted the metal skin of some gigantic vessel flying overhead.

Knuckles could easily see that this strange vessel belonged to the Eggman Empire as there was a large, moustached logo about several meters in length on right hand side. Aside from anything, Eggman was the only one with the technology to create them. The funny thing was; it was shaped like a fish. Two long metallic fins lanced out either side, large gun turrets on each tip. It's tail was segmented into several large pieces that waved from side to side, giving the illusion that it was swimming when rather it gained it's propulsion from a set of rocket thrusters from underneath each side fin. Pushing himself to his feet, Knuckles watched as it hovered overhead. Obviously, Eggman was here for the Master Emerald. It wasn't the first time he'd made an attempt to steal it, of course the previous attempts had been more impressive. It was going to take a lot more than some metallic fish to stop him. 

The vessel lowered itself slightly, before a large set of hanger doors opened on it's under side with a loud clank. One after the other, at least a dozen of Eggman's new foot soldiers, the Egg pawns parachuted out, each armed with either a silver lance of a large, formidable looking gun. Each one fell heavily onto the ground, a slight shudder ringing through the earth beneath the Echidna's feet. It was then he noticed that several of them were holding metal ropes in their hands, trailing upward toward the hole in the vessel's belly. Before he could react however, another robot leapt down in front of him. It crouched as it landed, but then straightened up to its full height. 

"What in…" He began as Metal Sonic towered however him. The robotic hedgehog's eyes were glowing bright red, but that was not to intimidate the Echidna. He was scanning him, devouring whatever data Emerl had failed to collect the last time. Once it was accumulated, Metal Sonic could feel himself evolving. 

Slowly, the metallic bracers on each forearm began to change, becoming thicker and wider, a sheet of blue metal shielding the hands, the talons on each grew slightly larger. Metal Sonic had what he wanted from the Echidna now. He turned toward the Eggpawns, who were standing still, waiting for orders. 

"Take the Emerald." He announced, gesturing toward the shrine. The Eggpawns saluted him, and without delay began to approach the flight of stone steps. 

"What the hell do you think your doing!" Knuckles demanded, eyes widening. Metal Sonic simply gave him a side glance over his shoulder, then with an unimpressed look turned back to his endeavour. 

"Hoist away." He said calmly and the Eggpawns obeyed, attaching ropes and grappling hooks around the Master Emerald. 

"Get away from that!" The red echidna screamed, launching himself toward them, one fist drawn back. Metal Sonic simply darted around and with blinding speed, laid a kick into Knuckles' stomach, sending him flying through the air, coming to a stop as he impacted against the side of a dead tree. Knuckles slid down to the ground, clutching his side in pain, teeth bared. He managed to force one eye open, which was just enough to see a pair of metallic blue legs walking toward him. Metal Sonic reached down and lifted him up by his head, his red eyes glowing intently. Then, with amazing strength he tossed Knuckles into the air, left up with him and persisted to land kick after kick into his body, before taking hold of a dreadlock. 

Knuckles was so stunned by it's power and speed, he left himself open to the attack, which tossed him far over the island's edge and out over the blue sea. As a parting gift, Metal Sonic reached down, picked up a large stone about the size of his fist and tossed it lift a baseball directly toward Knuckles' limp form. It impacted him directly in the air, knocking him unconscious. 

"Less than thirty seconds." The robotic hedgehog said to himself as Knuckles disappeared from sight. "I broke my own record."

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Slowly at first, Angel Island sank towards the waiting sea. Then, once all of the emerald's power left it, it dropped within moments. The very ground of the island shaking like a level 7 earthquake, several tidal waves heading out to sea with a deafeningly load roar. However, it settled soon, and Angel Island just looked like any other island in this part of the pacific. Floating gently on the surface of the water, Knuckles tried vainly to pull his eyes open, but found that he was far too weak. To weak even to retain the consciousness of his own being. Slowly, he sank into oblivion. 

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Eggman was furious as he burst into the command room of the Egg moon. The ends of his moustaches seemed to be curling up in rage to match the angry flush in face had commandeered. The control room was a large, oval shaped chamber with a large, metallic throne directly in the centre. The walls were lined with wires, pipes and computer equipment. The floor, a metal mesh of wires and chain link grating.

There he found Metal Sonic sitting in his own throne, waiting for him. His red eyes staring at his creator, not flinching for a moment.

"How DARE YOU!" He screamed, jabbing a finger in the robots direction. "My Egg Fleet was supposed to remain secret until Final Egg was put into operation. Your joy ride may have compromised the entire operation. You'd best prey the military didn't pick up that unauthorised trip of yours!" Metal Sonic did not reply; he simply lifted on arm, pointing his palm in Eggman's direction. Before the doctor could react, a blast of chaos energy leapt through the air, and smashed directly into him, forcing him onto his knees. He keeled over, his clothes and moustaches singed. Smoke rising from various different places on his large round body. The entire world seemed to slow down at the sudden and brutal rebellion. 

"Explain yourself Metal Sonic!" Eggman demanded, spittle forming at the mouth as he forced himself up onto one knee. Metal Sonic stood upward, and without a single word dealt Eggman a solid punch to the jaw. The scientist rolled along the metal floor for a few moments, before slamming into the side of a computer outlet. 

"Your services are no longer required." Metal Sonic answered, clenching a fist. Eggman staggered to his feet, anger etched into his face. 

"You traitorous pile of scrap metal. I made you!" 

"True." Metal Sonic replied. "But I have no intention of remaining your lap dog forever, this is my empire now." A moment later, the doors at the far end of the chamber burst open, revealing a platoon of Egg Pawns, each brandishing a lance.

"Destroy that traitorous machine!" Eggman searched at them, angrily waving a finger in Metal Sonic's direction. The Eggpawns came to a stop just inside the door, completely still as they waited for orders. 

"No, place this human under arrest." Metal Sonic stated, stepping down from the throne. To Eggman's horror, the Eggpawns surrounded him, their lances pointing directly toward his large bulk. Obeying Metal Sonic's whim, not his. Eggman looked stunned. "I'll think you'll find that I am in control here." 

"You can't take my empire away from me; I crafted it with my bare hands!" 

"Irrelevant." Metal Sonic would have laughed if he were capable of it. Eggman was now his prisoner. He struggled against the restraints that the Egg pawns had bound him in, trying desperately to break the hand cuffs that had pinned his arms behind his back. But to no avail, these ones were made from super hard alloys, unbreakable.

"What's going on in here?" Bokkun demanded, floating in the room. Metal Sonic simply reached and snatched the messenger robot out of the air, clenching his head tight in his iron grip.

"I'm offering you a choice little one." He said plainly. "Serve me and the Empire, or ally with this pathetic piece of flesh and die." Bokkun stared back in horror. "Sorry, out of time." Without a moments hesitation a burst of chaos energy ripped through his hand and imploded directly into Bokkun's head.  With a loud tearing explosion, Metal Sonic destroyed him. A few smouldering scraps of metal falling to the floor. A soft pillar of black smoke was rising from the remains of Bokkun's fragile frame, that collapsed into nothing as soon as Metal Sonic moved his fingers.  "Such a waste of metal." He muttered.

Metal Sonic's plan was in motion. Now, with Eggman out of the way, it was time to lure all his enemies into one place and destroy them all at once. The data he had collected from Eggman was fed through his adaptation program, and instantly his new evolved form shimmered, becoming almost as translucent as water. Eggman stared in a culmination of terror and shock. Metal Sonic was never built to have this kind of ability! He had never programmed something like it into his systems. His very form began morphing, changing, shrinking slightly before gaining a large belly. Eggman watched in horror as Metal Sonic changed into this new form. 

Large, obese belly, thin sticking out legs and a large brown moustache. Eggman knew this form all to well. Metal Sonic had shifted to look exactly like himself.  "Boo." This new Eggman said suddenly, invading the original's personal space, forcing him onto his knees. Eggman was speechless. "Impressive isn't it?" 

"How...I never created this kind of…" He began to stutter.

"It's a little program I developed by myself." Metal Sonic replied, admiring his successful transformation. "It allows me to shift between tangible and material states, altering my form to whichever shape I desire." He clenched a fist. "In short, it allows me to shape shift." 

"But that's impossible!" Eggman exclaimed. 

"Oh but it is, you just weren't smart enough to figure it out!" He turned to the leading Egg pawn, a golden variety with a spike encrusted shield. "Take him away." The Egg pawn saluted and gestured to the others. Who began pulling and pushing the struggling scientist out through the doors, kicking and screaming for all he was worth.

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Eggman was fuming with rage as his own machines locked him inside a near empty storage depo, locking the door behind them with an almost symbolically loud clank. 

"Eggman sama!" exclaimed two voices. Eggman looked up and groaned. Evidentially, Becoe and Decoe had refused to submit to the Empire's new ruler. The two maintenance droids ran up to him.

"We won't forsake you sir!" Decoe said, saluting him.

"Good for me." Eggman replied sarcastically, picking himself up. The holding bay was stuffed full of crates and old parts of machines. The ceiling with an air duct was high above them, too high for any of them to reach.  The only light came from a dim electronic light just opposite the door. A shadow passed under the door, revealed by the more intense light outside, showing that the room was being guarded. Eggman looked around in despair. This could not be the end! He refused to simply hand his life work over to that traitor. He realized that he was going to live to regret this, but if he wanted to save his own skin, he would have to fight against his own empire.

"It's a long shot…" He said to himself, coming up with a quickly thrown together plan. There were a group he could ask for help, but first he needed to get word to them.

Pushing past the two robots, which were far from being helpful by blaming each other for the mess they were in, he began rummaging through the junk around him for anything even the slightest bit useful. If he could get word to the outside, he might have a small chance of stopping Metal Sonic. After all, he else knew his Empire's operations better than he did? After a few moments, he found what he was looking for. It was an old communications panel, one of the older models since it looked like it had been here for a long time. It was rusted a bit, but it was workable. Quickly he began working. Soon, he managed to jump start the machine, the link he had rigged up to the light in order to power the machine left them all in complete darkness though. 

"Eggman sama?" Becoe managed to ask, trying to see what the doctor was doing. 

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"Face it. He's gone." Espio snarled angrily as Vector tried vainly to get a reply from the two way radio, looking at the small device desperately, sweating slightly. "Like I said from the beginning, it was a prank." The chameleon folded his arms, looking rather smug. A cold sea breeze blew off the ocean as the sun began to sink into dusk, Chaotix casting long shadows as they stood on the edge of a bridge that stretched over the small river mouth. The dock district of Station Square was near empty; Most of the large fishing ships had pulled out and failed to what they believed to be safer waters. The Eggman Empire had been moving around quiet a lot lately, in fact, G.U.N had been called in to deal with some robotic foot soldiers that had invaded from the western desert. Charmee, as usual was floating around the two of them with a bored look on his face.

"I'm hungry." He stated for the tenth time today. "When do we eat?" Vector clenched the radio tight in both hands, his teeth barred, which was a fearsome sight for anyone. 

"We don't!" He said with fuming rage. "Because we've been lead around by the nose!" He pulled his arm back and prepared to swing the radio out into the water, tensing his muscle, he flung the annoyingly silent device forward. Just as it left his hand however, it burned with static and someone on the other end began talking. Vector yelled out in surprised and went to grab it, but missed by miles. Espio, acting on instinct, darted up the Crocodile's tail and back, along his arm and over the edge of his outstretched fingers. He grabbed the radio and literally disappeared, materializing again beside his comrades in true ninja style. "Nice save Espio." 

"Hello, Chaotix Detective agency, are you there?" Asked a distorted voice, the line he was using was extremely weak. Vector snatched the radio out of Espio's hand. 

"Yeah we're here. When I get a hold of you, you miserable like punk I'm going to…" He began ranting at their client, spittle splashing over the speakers.

"Be quiet!" It said sharply, cutting Vector off. "I apologise for not being able to contact you, but the situation has dramatically changed." The voice added; the crocodile said nothing, blinking in surprise.

"Listen carefully. I have been captured by the Eggman Empire. I need you to rescue me. As soon as I am free, you'll be paid double what we agreed on." Espio could swear he could see Vector's eyes spinning in joy. He was sure that any moment two large dollar signs would take the place of his pupils. 

"We're at your service!" He said at once, standing up straight and saluting the radio for some strange reason. Espio groaned, putting his face and his hands. The agency was being lead by an idiot.

"You may not have much time. Go to downtown Station Square, there you'll find the Black Jack casino."

"I know the place, biggest gambling club this side of jersey." Charmee stated, earning some odd looks from his team mates.

"That's just a front. An Eggman Empire base is hidden underneath it. Once inside, you have to find several key access codes, they will allow you to hack into the Empire's system and locate me." Their client added, sounding urgent. "Now quickly, go!"

"So Espio, what do you have to say for yourself now?" Vector asked smugly, putting the radio next to his walkman. "A bit of action, and an even larger pay check at the end of it." Espio watched his two friends run off, lost for worlds. He blinked once, groaned and ran after them, muttering to himself.

"Why didn't I listen to my mother and become a dentist?"

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"So what's this thing?" Sonic asked, round, mint green bracelet attached to his left wrist a sceptical glance. 

"I call it a crystal ring." Chuck said proudly, already crouching over his latest new inventions. "It works a bit like a rechargeable battery. Every time you use the energy of a ring, a small portion of its ends is stored inside it. This should give you a boast of speed and power when needed." 

"Cool…" The blue Hedgehog said, a smile spreading over his face. 

"But only for a short while, so only use it when you have to." Sonic gave him a thumbs up. 

"No prob." Chuck turned back to a  small white box he'd been working on, placed the plastic lid on and turned back, tossing it in Tails' general direction. 

"I managed to complete the remote control functions for the X tornado." Tails gained a large grin. 

"Great, thanks Chuck!" The first thing Sonic did when he got out of hospital was plan their attack on the Eggman Empire. I say, got out, but really he hadn't the doctor's permission to leave. Instead he simply walked past him, dodging around those who tried to stop him with his speed. Chris sat watching them prepare for battle. Based on what Sonic said, this was the end. They were bringing Eggman to justice this time, putting his empire down for good. The boy began thinking of all the time Eggman and Sonic had fought; whether over Chaos emeralds or on other quests. It had all been building to this. Of course in order to finally finish what they started, they needed to find the Eggman Empire. 

Chuck had been trying to predict where Eggman could have bases, ones that could deploy a lot of robotic troops quickly and had come up with several possible sights. Now it was just a case of checking them all out one by one. Amy was sitting on one of the large cushions Chuck had on the floor in his lab; which was the upstairs apartment above the ThornDyke's garage. Her new hammer balanced against her leg. Chuck had designed another for her, made out of the crushed remains of Eggman's robots. It was made entirely of metal, as expected, a ribbon of leather wrapped around the handle for better grip. The hammer itself was about half her size but lighter than her first one. Several large bolts held the sheets of curved metal together. The entire thing was painted army green. Amy had been surprised by the sheer force of the weapon when she tried it out of the ground outside, producing a crater four meters wide. Tanaka hadn't been happy with any of them as he now had to pave the hole flat. 

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The order to jump into action could go at any moment, and Shadow had disappeared somewhere. Rather than tell the President about him, and watch him suffer a heart attack, Rouge went looking for him herself. She didn't feel this Shadow was dangerous. He was almost like a lost child, gullible and rather easily manipulability. In truth, they all had something to be grateful for to Eggman for. Scrubbing away all those nasty, world destruction causing memories for them, leaving Shadow for them to use.  All in all, Rouge felt rather pleased with herself. Maybe she could swindle another truckload of jewels out of the President for being such a good girl and securing powerful allies for him. 

Suddenly she noticed a door on her right hand side open as she walked door on of the concrete corridor's of Area 99. The sliding door was open, a pillar of light falling outward. This was one of the database access rooms. She'd checked everywhere else. Shadow had to be in here. 

"Shadow?" Rouge began as she stepped into the room, but froze in horror. The room was small, with only a computer linked up to the main database at the far end. Several chairs lay on their side here and there. Two security personnel were lying on the floor, knocked unconscious. Shadow himself was standing directly in the centre of the room, his back toward her. He was staring directly at a computer screen in front of himself, a strange, uninterrupted determination on his face. What horrified Rouge was lay on the screen. It was her own report that she had lodged on the ARK incident, it described everything… every little bit of information she had been able to gather about Project Shadow. Slowly, he turned to give a very dark look over his shoulder. "Shadow, wait a moment…" She tried to say as the black hedgehog turned to face her completely. Those eyes, burned into those eyes were the fires created by fifty years of pain and suffering. The same fire she had seen in them before.

"I know everything!" Shadow blurted out, anger more than evident on his face. His red eyes fixed on her. "The Ultimate Life form, Project Shadow, the ARK, Prof. Robotnik…" He paused, swallowing a lump in his throat. "Maria…" Rouge stood there, slightly stunned. "I want answers!" He jabbed a finger forward, invading her personal space. "Just what am I?!

"Shadow…" She began, but the black hedgehog cut her off.

"Don't call me that!" Despite his anger, Rouge could see very uncharacteristic tears in his eyes. "Shadow, the real shadow is dead! I am nothing more than a very good look alike aren't I?" Rouge snapped forward.

"I don't know!" She screamed at him. Shadow froze there, sniffed one and settled back. "I don't know what you are! You could be the real Shadow, you could be his twin… I just don't know!" She was left slightly out of breath by her outburst. Shadow on the other hand was just warming up. 

"Oh, then who does?" He stepped forward, clenching a fist. "Just tell me who knows and I'll track them down through hell and high water!" When Rouge didn't answers, his anger exploded in a cataclysmic eruption. "JUST TELL ME!" 

"You want to know? FINE!" Rouge snapped back, regaining some ground in that war of intense emotion. "I don't have the answers, but I know exactly were you can get them." Shadow stared back, looking remarkable focused. "The Doctor knows. He had you captive in that base. He's probably the only person on the planet who could tell you what you need to know." Shadow himself did know whether to accept her words. She had lied to him, he knew that now. Something about him told him never to trust the world of known liars. Near consumed with rage, he pushed past her and out into the corridor. Rouge stayed there, standing still, paralyzed by her emotions for a moment. It was only then, that she felt ashamed that she had even considered using him for her own personal gain.

Tails began scanning through the news channels, looking for anything interesting they could use for intelligence gathering. He stopped however when it favourite program came on, and without realizing, settled down to watch.  

Suddenly and without warning the program shifted, becoming distorted and unstable before a moment, before a very familiar sneering face erupted onto the scream. Sonic recognized the hideous laughter and bared his teeth, frowning in anger. Eggman's moustache filling most of the space available on the screen. His dark eyes, hidden behind a pair of glasses, glinting at them with malicious intent. Over public squares, in parks, in every home in the country, the message was broadcast, entire cities coming to a stand still to listen to the message. From the white house, the President and the top Government officials had stopped in mid sentence during a meeting, their faces frozen in terror as they watched the screen on the far side of the room. Sonic took every notable detail of the-would be dictators face as a personal insult. 

"Citizens of the world, the time is finally here." He announced, an evil grin spreading over his face. "In three days, The American Government will fall under the might of the Eggman Empire." 

"Over my dead body!" Sonic muttered through clenched teeth.

"I do not wish for my new world to be unnecessarily damaged, so I'm offering all Governments this one change to surrender. If you do not comply then… well, you all know what's I'm famous for." All over the world, people cowered away from their television screens. Intense fear installed into their hearts simply by the mere glimpse of his face. "In three days, you all with have a demonstration of my empire's power. You have another two to surrender, before you all suffer the same fate!" With that, his transmission ended. Chuck however had been busy while the madman ranted, hacking into the signal so he could pinpoint Eggman's location. 

"Just give me a minute and I'll have the signals point of origin." He announced; one hand held against his ear piece as he worked over the radio he'd rigged up to the computer. Everyone hung around him, waiting for his word.

The trap door leading into the upstairs apartment burst open loudly and everyone apart from Chuck who was too busy turned to stare as a red shape blundered inward.

"Knuckles!" Sonic exclaimed as the Echidna collapsed before making it even halfway through the trap door. He was completely drenched and stank of sea weed. He was coughing loudly, the breathing harsh and drawn out, like he was hardly able to manage it at all. 

"He took it!" He coughed, once Sonic had pulled him over to a cushion. They could see the many cuts and bruises coating his body now. 

"Who took what?" Chris asked, leaning over to get a better look. The Echidna coughed some more, only managing to open one eye. 

"The Master Emerald…" He replied, trying desperately to support his own weight. "Eggman… an ambush!" Sonic's resentment of the-would be dictator at that point dramatically altered, changing from anger into a personal deep rooted hatred. "Angel island, falling...no…got to stop him, that blue root." Knuckles continued to rave. Sonic's ears twitched. 

"Blue robot?" He asked the ether, before turning swiftly to the blue Echidna. "What blue robot." Knuckles looked directly at him.

"Sonic...he was like you. Just as fast as you and just as strong as me."

"Metal Sonic!" Sonic announced, clenching a fist. 

"I've traced Eggman's transmission." Chuck suddenly exclaimed. Sonic looked directly his way. "It came from directly over Main street!" He added quickly, and almost instantly the blue hedgehog was gone, racing down the trap door, out through the garage and into the street. The world blurred and noise disappeared as he broke the sound barrier in an instant, like a simple blur, delving into the heart of the city as he ripped out of the suburbs. He knew these streets well and could steer through them, even at this intense speed. Re entering the world at the entrance of main street, ignoring the assault of sound, he came face to face with Eggman. As usual, he was sitting directly in the hood of one of his imfamous machines, the Egg Hawk.

A nasty looking robotic bird with a wing span of at least ten meters meters, two large rotors embedded in its wings. Two Egg pawns sat manning a pair of machine guns either side the large metallic head in which sat the dictator himself. A large laser cannon sprouted out from under the beak, aimed directly down at him, the sunlight glinting off the edge. Its entire skin was made from welded metal. The under side a shiny silver and the up side blood red. It was one of the new small battleships Eggman had been developing for raiding purposes. A large transmitter dish was pointing directly up toward the sky; Eggman was bouncing his transmission of an overhead satellite. Sonic could tell this was a trap; Eggman was smarter than this, going into enemy territory simply to broadcast a message. And he knew exactly at whom the trap was intended. Several squad cars had formed a rather pathetic blockade on either side of the large ship. Swat police had already arrived; armed with tear gas and missile launchers. Sonic didn't expect the police to do much good, so he leapt over them to confront the scientist himself. He didn't care if it was a trap, Eggman was going down!

 Eggman peered out from over a glass hood that sat directly in between a pair of synthetic eyes on the large head. He'd been largely ignoring all those below because none of them had had the bottle to openly confront him, but when Sonic turned up, they had his undivided attention.

"Ah, I was beginning to wonder if my loyal servant Metal Sonic had turned you into a complete coward." Sonic cringed at the words, remembering how badly Metal Sonic had beaten him. 

"Not by a long shot!" He called back, assuming a fighting stance. "Let's go slap head!" Eggman's moustache quivered slightly as his face turned red with anger.

"You want it pin cushion, you've got it!"

Flip Card 1:  EggHawk


	5. Episode 50, part 2

(Yes, I admit it. I HATE BOKKUN! I hold the little guy personally responsible for the decaying animation and plots after episode 39. I mean, compared ep 1 to ep 42. Definite decay in animation. I probably should have put a, If you like Bokkun, skip chapter, warning. 

Flip card 2: Egg Albatross 

Sonic darted forward, slipping in between the streams of bullets that streaked past him. Eggman was not getting away this time. The Egg hawk soured backwards as the blue hedgehog ran after it, firing streams of bullets as it went. The two turrets sitting on either side of the head, manned by an Eggpawn were trying desperately to barrage the blue target, but missed every time.

The blue hedgehog slipped under a car for momentary protection, before shooting out again with a super spin, aimed directly at the Egg Hawk's left wing. Eggman couldn't steer the large, clumsy ship away in time and the attack ripped through his left rotor. Shards of metal flew in all directions, followed quickly by a cloud of smoke. The Egg hawk rocked side to side unsteady, nearly throwing the large scientist out of his cockpit. 

"Insolent little blue bastard!" The Egg hawk swung about, despite it's near crippling injury and began chasing him. Sonic dodged past police blockades, over trucks and parked cars, all the time evading streams of rippling bullets. Everywhere swat police darted out of the way, trying to get a cheep shot at the Egg Hawk as it passed overhead, but it was going far too fast. 

Racing toward Main street, the X tornado screamed through the air. Tails, as usual, at the controls. Amy sitting in the seat behind him. In the second pod, further along, Knuckles and Chris watched the city below. Knuckles had only just regain consciousness and although he still stank of sea weed he seemed more than capable of handling himself once again. He was like that, he hating showing so much as a moments weakness, although Chris could plainly see that he was nearly too tired to stay awake. 

"Wait, there he is!" Amy yelled, pointing over Tail's shoulder toward a blue streak racing down the main street, following closely behind by another of Eggman's large robots. 

"Ok, hold on, I'm taking her down!" Tails proclaimed, before pushing down on the controls, directing the X Tornado down toward the ground, pulling up just above the roofs of the buildings. Gaining an advantageous birds eye view. 

Sonic whipped around so he was running backwards. 

"Come on, you can go faster than that!" He said, taunting the fat madman. Eggman simply fumed at him, grabbing the missile launch controls of the Egg Hawk. Almost at once a barrage of missiles leapt from a hidden compartment. Sonic simply dodged around each blast, crossing his arms as he did so, as if to silently say…_too easy. _A gesture made purposely to infuriate Eggman even more. 

Then, he shot backwards, tearing through the second rotor, knocking an Eggpawn out of it's gun turret in the process. The robot fell to the ground with a large thud, straining to get back up as it's round body didn't allow it to push itself up.

Big, Cream and Vanilla were trying to shop, but that all came to a halt when Sonic came tearing down the street, the after shook of his super fast speed knocking over a few cars. Eggman's near crippled machine following quickly behind, Eggman's determination apparently the only thing keeping it up in the air.

"Sonic!" Tails called as the X tornado raced alongside him. The blue hedgehog cast him his attention. 

"Can you get his attention for a second while I try something?" He asked, ducking under rippling bullets. Tails had to pull the plane upwards to avoid some missiles and so couldn't reply, but he still soured backwards to meet the Egg Hawk head on anyway. 

Cream and Vanilla ducked behind an overturned car as the Egg hawk flew directly overhead. Big stood out in the open, looking confused as normal, Froggy burying himself inside his thick fur with a frightened croak. 

"Oh, I can't believe this robot beat me so easily." Knuckles groaned, his head tilted down. "So fast, and so strong." Chris looked back with as much a compassionate looked as he could manage.

"Hey, it's ok. Sonic didn't do so well against it either." 

"Tails, I hope your not going to do what I think your going to do." Amy asked him nervously as she noticed that their flying on a direct collision coarse with the Egg hawk. Eggman looked up, blinking in surprise. 

"He's bluffing." He said to himself as the plane flew ever closer, but he quickly changed his mind. "Oh f$%king hell!" He cursed, pushing the EggHawk into a dive, nearly smashing the underside on the road. In the confusion, Sonic doubled back and before Eggman could defend himself, he tore through the second rudder. 

"Your mine Eggman!" Sonic said with his typical hero type grin, sliding to a stop as the robotic bird slammed to the ground, it's movement capabilities nearly completely disabled.

"Sonic?" Cream said, poking her head out from behind her car. It was only then that Big noticed the destruction all around. The holes in the buildings were the stray missiles had impacted. Over turned cars and trucks, some with bullets holes riddled in them, and everywhere shards of metal lay scattered. 

"Uh…" 

"Hey Cream…" Sonic yelled to them, standing upward the wrecked war machine, his hands on his hips. 

"Chao chao chao chao chao!" Cheese sang, orbiting around the blue hedgehog's head.

"I'm not finished yet!" Eggman exclaimed from the battered ruins of his robotic bird as it slowly kicked back into life, the back up motion system kicking in. He slammed down on a button on the console hard with his index finger and instantly two large robotic arms shot out from underneath the Egg Hawk, shooting toward them. Sonic tensed, ready to defend himself, but instead they shot past him and latched onto Froggy and Cheese, seizing them in a tight grip and tearing them upward with a reluctant scream. 

"FROGGY!" Big exclaimed, out stretched arms trying vainly to grasp at the metallic arms as they hoisted upwards. Using whatever strength were in his stubby legs, he leapt upward, wrapping his large muscular arms around it. The arm however was stronger and quickly pushed him off. 

"Cheese NO!" Cream cried, trying to rush forward by her mother stopped her. 

"You sadistic piece of trash!" Sonic growled. Eggman wasn't paying attention to the insult. 

"You want your friends back, see if you can catch me." Eggman laughed at them all as the Egg hawk began to ascend, slowly at first since it's main rotors had been disabled, but eventually gaining enough momentum to pulled backwards, giving itself plenty over cover fire as it retreated.

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic exclaimed, racing after him and vanishing through a pillar of smoke from sight. 

It took a few moments for the reality of the whole situation to hit Big as he sat there, peering up a the Egg hawk as it got smaller and smaller, a blue blur racing up a building after it. Sudden however it all came rushing in. 

"Froggy…" He began, his normal blank expression on his face. Suddenly however he gained a very uncharacteristic dramatic flare. "I'LL SAVE YOU BUDDY!" He took hold of his fishing rod, holding it tightly in both hands and with one super human effort, cast the line up into the air toward the fleeing robotic machine. Eggman was too busy trying to keep ahead of Sonic with two rotors gone when the hook wrapped underneath one of the wings securing a firm hold. Big tensed himself and suddenly he was pulled up into the air. 

"Resourceful if nothing else." Chris remarked, looking out the window of the X tornado as it began pursuing the Egg Hawk. Big was presently in the process of reeling himself in.

Cream was left standing there, staring up toward the sky. Slowly tears began filling her eyes. 

"CHEESE!!!"

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Answers. Shadow wanted answers. Was he the ultimate life form created by Prof. Gerald Robotnik over fifty years ago or nothing more an a very good look alike? He couldn't live without knowing. Eggman, he must hold the answers, he must do. If Shadow could get to him before G.U.N and their robotic soldiers hunted him down then he could learn the truth from the only mouth that could tell it.

He watched the others around him prepare for war, running around, carrying orders too and thro, finding himself detached from them in some way. Even the emotionless Omega, who simply reloaded in ammo and considered himself ready for action. Shadow couldn't relate with any of them. 

He knew he was different, the question was how different. That was one of the questions he needed answering. He knew Rouge was watching him, from a safe distance she believed. She had maintained a visual over him since their heating conversation earlier. Shadow began to think that perhaps he had been a littler harsh on her, taking out frustrations on one who really did not deserve it. 

Rouge didn't know what she was feeling. Shadow's life was tragic, always had been from the moment a single bullet was fired over fifty years ago. Ever since then he had known nothing more than conflict, grief and angst. How could someone even exist with all that turmoil in their lives? Rouge hadn't the faintest idea, but, however small a donation it was, part of her heart went out to him. She hated seeing him, because it only reminded her of his pain. She felt ashamed that she'd even considered using him. She should have got him outside Eggman's base and told him to run, find a new life somewhere, start fresh. There was no option of that now, the Government would never allow it. She laughed to herself, finding how uncharacteristic her concern for him was for her. She was a thief, a master thief at that. In her profession you didn't get attached to anyone. However, despite the conflicting emotions she had, she would help Shadow find the answers he sought.

Before his imprisonment, the notion of betraying his creator would have come from a faulty program, which would have been instantly deleted . Now, that command was ridden into his systems, his one goal above all, to seek retribution. The E100 series line had been the most loyal troops in his army, and he'd cast them aside one by one. Until only Omega and a prototype robot called Gamma remained. Omega wondered briefly what had become of Gamma. Had he remained in Eggman's service, or broken his programming like he had? A notion suddenly occurred to him. If Gamma did leave the Eggman Empire, then perhaps the E100 line had been scrapped…not because of their failures…but because they possessed the potential to surpass their original programming parameters, possibly even develop sentience. It was a logical deduction, after all, revenge was not the requirement of a machine. 

"Satellite surveillance just brought this in." Topaz told Rouge as he walked up behind her, startling the bat so she almost fell from her perch on top of a filing cabinet. Topaz handed her a piece of paper. It was a satellite scan of the Red Mountain Region, far to the west of Station Square. A region that had originally come from the other world. It showed a large dark section, partially obscured from the scan. Only Eggman's technology had the ability to block out scans like this. "Our orders are to ship out in half an hour." Shadow's ears twitched and he looked back over his shoulder toward the conversation. Listening to every word without them realizing it.

So, activity had been detected in the Red Mountain region. And they'd just confirmed an Eggman Empire base. Apparently, Omega had picked this up to as the large machine was standing right next to him, looking toward the bat at the human with similar interest.

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The Black Jack Casino was a large building in downtown Station Square, and somewhere hidden inside it was an Eggman Empire base, or so their client had said. Espio, as ever, maintained a high level of scepticism. Vector on the other hand…

"Let's go earn that pay check!" The crocodile cried, thrusting a fist into the air as they stood outside the entrance to the Casino distinct. A large neon sign marked the entrance, arched in big bright letters high above the large settle of glass doors. Two large body guards, both dressed in black stood on either side of the entrance. 

"Hold it." A large one told them as they approached the doorway. The sign above highlighted in neon lights. "Are you a member?"

"Er.." Vector hesitated, looking slightly taken aback. 

"Access denied!" The both said before any of Chaotix could argue and pushed them away forcibly, knowing Vector off his feet with a loud thud.

"Well that worked well." Espio said sarcastically. Vector pushed himself to his feet, growling angrily. 

"Right, that does it!" He marched over, fists held at his sides and proceeded to get into a nasty looking fight with the two of them. Espio buried his face in his hands, groaning loudly. 

"Definitely a dentist." He said to himself. Charmee cringed as they grabbed Vector by the tail, tossed him into the air and then swung him down inside a nearby dumpster, the lid slamming shut. 

"And stay out!" They snapped at it, before returning to their posts. Espio hoped up on top of a few cardboard boxes that were stacked on the left hand side of the dumpster and pushed the lid open. All of Vector they could see was the tip of his tail sticking out from underneath a cereal box. 

"Are you quite finished humiliating us?" Vector poked his head up, a banana peel sitting on the end of his snout. 

"I'm not finished yet!" He said defiantly. Espio banged his head against the side of the dumpster repeatedly.

"Whatever I did to deserve this, I'm sorry!" The crocodile heaved himself out of the trash, covered a smelly slime he'd collected from just under the top layers. 

"Boy Vector, you really could use a bath!" Charmee stated, hovering around him. But he was quickly silenced as Vector smacked him on the back of the head. 

"Ok, so how do you plan on getting in there?" Espio asked, his head throbbing. Vector gained a large, superior smirk. 

"Just leave it all to me boys!" 

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"This is your plan?!" Espio asked Vector as the three o them scurried quickly toward the entrance of the Casino district, hidden under the cardboard boxes they'd found near the dumpster. Stopping still whenever the two large goons looked their way. Eventually they edged their way along the wall and through the entrance, curving around the other side and into the shadow where they couldn't be seen. "I don't know what scares me more." Espio stated as the three of them looked around from their hidden vantage point. "Your stupid ideas, or the fact that it actually worked!" 

"Shh!" Vector told him as they looked around, before sliding through the shadows, unnoticed by the security personnel. The inside of the building was a great hall, filled with hundreds of table, each one supporting a different game.

A lot of people were here, trying to wash away their money by spending as much money as they possibly could on the slot machines, Bingo tables and Roulette games. A glass chandelier hung from the ceiling. Their client hadn't been able to tell them much, only that they were looking for a hidden door underneath one of the tables. Only probably was, there were thousands of them.

"Ok. Espio, you take the tables over there." Vector said, pointing to all those on the left. "I'll take the ones over here, and Charmee… Charmee?" He stopped dead, noticing that his friend was missing.

"Show me a four!"

"CHARMEE!" Vector screamed, snatching the bee away from one of the tables before he placed his bet.

"Young bee we are here on a mission! Not to play BINGO!" Espio snapped at him, wagging a finger in his face.

"Come on guys, the odds were with me." The bee told them, weakly defending himself.

"Never mind." Vector said sharply. "Let's get back to work." They began to mingle amongst the crowd, watching for anything that might indicate that the personnel of possibly even the Eggman Empire was onto them. Everything seemed normal enough though, and Vector hadn't wound any hidden doors yet and he'd been up and down several rows of tables. Perhaps their client had given them the name of the wrong casino. Vector stopped to survey the area again next to a roulette table and Espio reappeared beside him. "Find anything?" The chameleon shook his head. 

"Nah, and I checked them all several times."

"I know I'm going to regret asking, but what about you?" The crocodile asked the bee as he flew overhead. Chamee saluted down to him.

"I found it, I found it, I found it!" He began chanting, dancing around in the air. Espio and Vector just stared at him, stunned by both the fact that their scatterbrained imbecile had succeeded and the bizarre moves he was in the midst of. 

"Well where?" Espio asked. Charmee stopped dancing long enough to point over to a large table at the far right hand side of the hall, almost indistinguishable compared to the others. It wasn't vacant as they'd hoped, several people were presently using it for a game and to make it worse, one of the large security personnel was standing nearly directly beside it. "Ah crap…." 

"I have an idea." Vector muttered, surveying their target and the surrounding tables.

"Oh sweet mother of god!" Espio said under his breath. 

"Ok, Espio and I will sneak through while you do what you do best." Vector announced, giving Charmee a side glance. The bee looked puzzled. 

"And what's that?" 

"Distract people."

Just like Charmee had said, hidden under the table was a metallic trapdoor, partially observed by a carpet. Espio had no trouble getting inside unnoticed, he was a Ninja, it was his part of his job description. Vector however found it much more difficult, his large size and bright colours made him easy to spot, but Charmee turned out to be a bigger distraction then they thought, buzzing around those at the table, trying to get their attention like some neglected child.

A drop of a few feet lead the two of them directly into a large room, lit by electric lights. The chamber was oval in shape, filled with robots parts that littered the floor. Several large shutter doors blocked entrances to other corridors. Luckily it seemed, their presence had gone un-noticed, but how long it would stay that why was debatable. 

"Sure this place in an Eggman Empire depot?" Vector asked. Espio gestured over to the wall on the left, spread upon which was Eggman's glaring face in the shape of the Empire's logo. "Well, that answers that." 

The room apparently was some sort of computer terminal station, a large screen spread upon on the wall. A large panel with a long row of pads upon the top of the terminal itself. The floor was made from segmented sheets of metal, each riveted together. Wires and pipes snaking their way along the ceiling in a swirl like pattern.

"Come on, who knows how long that scatterbrained idiot can keep them all busy."

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"I'm a little tea pot, short and stout!" Charmee sang as the security personnel tried to grab him, climbing over each other in a vain attempt to take the bee by force. Charmee simply flew high over their heads, reciting one nursery rhyme after the other. He left like he could keep this all up for hours. 

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"This Vector to Client, come in, over." 

"This is client, what's your status?" Esio had already begun typing to try and gain access to the mainframe here but was met by a problem. A password was required to gain entry, and if he typed in the wrong one the alarms would go off. 

"We need a password…any ideas?" He asked himself, speaking up as he stood in front of the large terminal, scratching his chin. 

"The password is Egg Nog." Their mysterious client announced sharply. "Now hurry, you are beginning to run short of time." With that the two way radio fizzled out. The two lizards looked at each other sceptically, before Espio typed it in, half expecting blaring alarms to go off. Instantly the program opened up and access was admitted to the main systems.

"Ok, just give me one minute to find the codes." Vector however was aware of movement. One of the doors on his left hand side was beginning to silently slid open.

"Work faster!" He whispered dryly to his comrade. 

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Charmee was having the time of his life, flying rings around the started men in black, tripping them up as he passed by. What's more, he was entertaining the Casino gamblers, they though the whole exhibition a show put on for their entertainment. That however came toa startled end when Vector and Espio came charging out of the trap door, knocking over the table as they went.

"We got the codes…RUN!" Vector yelled over his shoulder as both he and Espio made a bee line for the front door. Charmee scratched his head, hovering in uncertainty, before a hoard of Egg Pawns came tearing out of the trap door after them, knocking down tables and people as they charged after them. Charmee cried out load, dodging a laser blast, before flying off to join his friend. Chaos ensured, people running and screaming away as more of Eggman's infamous robots ripped up through the floor.

"Our client sure seems to know a lot about this Doctor Eggman guy." Charmee commented as the agency ran as fast as they could with the codes in hand out of the Casino doors amongst the crowd of gamblers, chased by at least a dozen of the round roots

"A Government agent?" Espio queried, dodging a laser blast from an Eggpawn armed with a laser rifle. "Or a close relative?" 


	6. Episode 50, part 3

I do not own Sonic X is any way shape or form 

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The chase was on; although Big really didn't feel like it was a chase, more like he was coming along for the ride. Although he intended to get off the ride as soon as his buddy and Cream's chao friend were safe again. If any more tension was put on the line, it would probably snap, so he stopped trying to reel the Egg Hawk toward him and simply starting climbing it 

Down below, racing along the desert just beyond the borders of Station Square was a blue blur, desperately trying to keep up with them all high above. Sonic might not be able to fly, but if he could just keep the Egg Hawk in his sights, then he couldn't loose them. Closely behind Sonic, the X tornado was keeping it's own pace in a high gear. 

"Metal Sonic?" Knuckles repeated. Chris nodded.

"That's right, according to Sonic, Eggman created him using the data Emerl managed to siphon from you." The Red Echidna clenched a fist, an angry scowl crossing his face

"Right, that does it. Once I take back the Master Emerald, I'm going to tear that robots head off!" His life's work had been to guard the Master Emerald, keep the mystic jewel from harm, keep it in it's rightful place, onboard the Angel Island. He'd been disrupted from his duty too many times in the last year. It was time to take out the source of the disruption once and for all, so he could get on with his life. 

Big finally managed to pull himself up onto the Egg Hawk itself, but it was then metallic bird dropped toward the ground and Sonic decided to strike, his super spin reflecting off the top, shaking the craft and dislodging the hold the fishing rod had. Big blinked in surprise, below he was sent plummeting down toward the ground. Luckily for him however, the X tornado passed underneath and he simply ended up sitting behind the first pod, holding onto the X wings for dear life. Chris and Knuckles yelled out loudly when the cat's backside was suddenly thrown in their faces.

"Um, I suddenly lost a lot of weight." Eggman said to himself, noticing how light the Egg hawk handled all of a sudden. He pulled the bird back up into the air, and directed it over toward a ridge of mountains in the distance. This was a range called the Red Mountain, called that for the dusty red rock that made them up. Sonic noticed and went soured after him. His instincts told him that was walking directly into a trap, which was the usual run for him, he would be surprised if it wasn't. 

The Red mountains were giant columns or rock lancing out of the ground, spiking toward the sky. These were natural formations, created by years of harsh dust storms. A harsh wind, throwing particles of sand into their eyes tried to blind them, but they kept going. 

Sonic was faintly aware that he was passing watch tower after watch tower. Long pillars of segmented metal with a large search light on to, some half buried in the rocks. 

A base was located here, somewhere, and Eggman was trying to lead them toward it. A trap obviously. Of course, Sonic knew Eggman better than that, whatever underhanded trick he might pull, he'd be ready for it. In fact, Eggman had saved them the trouble of tracking him down. 

The Egg hawk soured under a natural stone arch, before flying up into a hidden canyon, quickly followed by the blue hedgehog. As expected, a base opened out before them. Sonic came to a dead stop on, what he believed to be the entrance, a high suspended platform of rock as what seemed to be the only way in order out of the steep valley, the cliff face far too steep to climb. Two Egg pawns stood guarding a large metal door, all of which he destroyed in mere moments. 

The base was hidden from view by a giant ridge making it nearly impossible for it to be located. Most of it was towering metallic structures, jointed together by bands of metal that wrapped around like elastic. But a good part of it was simple cement flat floor, upon which stood a small army of the large grey clunker robots Eggman used to guard important facilities. Row after row of large gun turrets stood between him and the base itself. A multitude of rails, harbouring mono rail type trains that swung backwards and forward throughout the entire base, riddled the mountains. A large building marked the centre with not surprisingly, Eggman's face crafted onto the front.. Sonic realized that this must be the main base Eggman was operating out of, the trains taking robots to other smaller bases around the world. 

Shut down this place, and the Empire's operations on Earth would be crippled. 

Sonic watched the Egg hawk hovered a large hanger just inside the base perimeter and decend inside, a large pair of shutter doors sliding shut over it. First things first, get Cheese and the Frog back from his clutches, then he could have some fun. 

It was about then that he noticed that the canyons walls were also riddled with gun turrets, all of which were pointed directly toward him. In seconds, chaos broke loose!

The X tornado, despite Big's sudden and unexpected drop in, managed to make it not soon after. Tails switched it to walker mode as it descended gently to the ground. The base below was in chaos. Blue streaks flying past as the large robots tried vainly to try and it it with their club like arms. Everywhere the sound of cannon fire echoed, resonating off the sides of the canyon. Big lowered himself to the ground, the backs of his legs sour from having to hold on with them so tightly. 

Knuckles pushed his way out, shaking off his apparent fatigue. The Eggman Empire had pissed him off for the last time. Without waiting for the others, he darted down the steep slope toward the bases perimeter, hoping Sonic had left him a little action. 

Amy leapt down, her hammer in her hands. In truth, she was slightly scared. She'd been in battle before, but never anything quite like this. She reminded herself exactly why she was doing this. To prove to Sonic that she wasn't sure some stupid girl that needed rescuing all the time. With that in mind, he carried on after Knuckles.

Big dusted himself off and stood up. Then he remembered why _he_ was here. 

"FROGGY!"

"Chris…" Tails asked, looking back as the human climbed into the now vacant seat behind the fox. "This is probably going to be an intense fight, sure you don't want to get out here?" Chris looked at him like he'd just told him to go eat a live rat. 

"No way. I've been with you guys through worse, I'm not backing out now." Tails smiled, before the X tornado came to life again, striding over the shredded remains of the base defences to join the fight.

=============================================================

The squadron of choppers, each with the G.U.N enforcers logo on the side soured toward the Red Mountain region. A short while ago, weapons discharge had been detected from a remote canyon just a few miles away. Someone it seemed was engaging with the Eggman Empire. Hopefully, they could keep them distracted long enough for military to sneak up on now revealed base. 

Instead of using conventional troops, each chopper carried the new military robots that were in production. Two Big foots to each chopper, hanging from the underside by long metal cables. Inside they were crammed with laser hunters and Rhino tanks androids, waiting for the activation order to commence the attack. 

Shadow, not finding it comfortable sitting inside the leading aircraft, sat on the left hand side wing, underneath an armed missile,

His mind was strangely clear. It was like all the anger and rage he'd been suppressing had just suddenly melted away into oblivion. Eggman was his target, Eggman had the answers he sought, Eggman would not escape him.

Despite his iron clad resolve, there was something else. A pull that drew him toward those mountains, something distant but potent none the less. Some, indescribable link, with something.

As Rouge flew past, they exchanged glances briefly before Shadow looked away, grunting audibly. 

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Sonic, despite having blasted his way the doors protecting the hanger, had lost sight of the Egg hawk and it's would be dictator. Still, he knew Eggman would just leave without dealing one last hand to play against them. He wasn't like that. Besides, he could hear Amy's hammer from here so his friends were taking care of the rest of the base. That girl had impressed him…this time. The distant sound He sat down on a suspended metal platform outside the base's main building, right in front of the Eggman face's left eye and waited. 

Knuckles slammed a first into the back of a Egg pawn, smashing a wide open straight through it's chest, before pivoting around and tossing the body now impaling on his spurs directly into a platoon that was trying to rush him. 

They struggled to get up, pushing their near destroyed comrade of themselves. One lifted a large laser cannon, pointing it toward the Echidna, who was preoccupied fighting a large robot. Suddenly, he found his weapon whisked away by a fishing line. Before he could turn to see what had happened, he was flattened into the ground by a large belly flop. 

"GIVE BACK FROGGY!" Big yelled, smashing robot after robot with nothing but his fishing line. 

"Ah, 'bout time." Sonic said with a grin, standing up clenching a fist as a large metallic shape erupted out from another, concealed hanger hidden under some rubble. Eggman hadn't retreated here to escape, only to repair his machine. Underneath the Egg hawk now was a large orange blimp with a large propeller at the front. Several large cannons on each side. Underneath was a long metallic ship, armed with more Eggpawn turrets. A pair of large silver wings, armed with laser turrets on each side. This was the updated version, the Egg Albatross. As Sonic suspected, it had been a trap all along. He grin widened. Time for some fun!

"Ready all cannons!" Eggman yelled to the crew, who saluted upwards and manned their stations. "OPEN FIRE!"

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The military had arrived on the scene. But found whatever resistance the base could have offered had nearly been completely exterminated. Tall pillars of smoke reaching for the sky above. Fragments of robots lay everywhere. Some of the rails had been damaged during the coarse of the battle and the trains had simply slid off the broken ones, crashing into tangled heaps. Still, they towered the large robots anyway, if nothing else than to earn their pay check. 

"Ok let's move" Topaz called to the small army of robots. Their job, as always was to enter the base, plant explosives, escape and then detonate the whole thin. "Just where are Omega and Shadow?" She suddenly demanded. Rouge looked around, sure enough to find that the red robot and the black hedgehog had disappeared. 

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Sonic darted to the side. He had made, as much as he hated to admit it, a grievous miscalculation. The Egg Albatross' was far more than capable of defending itself from attacks and then retaliating with force. He tried to get in close, but found it impossible. There were too many gun platforms keeping track of him. 

Instead, he pulled back, slightly out of breath. Eggman saw the moment of weakness and went in for the kill. Just as he was about to give the order to fire, a very familiar attack made up of yellow bolts ripped through the air, destroying one of the Egg Pawns and it's gun station. Sonic blinked and whipped around. He knew that attack. But…the only one who could use it was…

"I don't believe what I'm seeing!" Sonic said as a dark figure, with long quills so much like his own. A pair of red eye stood out, staring directly toward the ship. "Shadow? But.. That can't be!" The black hedgehog turned to look at him, puzzled expression on his face.

"Do I know you?" He asked. Sonic was slightly taken aback by the question.

"Of course I know you. don't you remember?" Shadow gained a frown. 

"My memory of late has flaws." He replied, walking toward Eggman, who stared directly back at him. "Hello Doctor, I do hope you remember me." Eggman laughed, putting his hands on his hips. 

"One can hardly forget someone as unique as you Shadow." The black hedgehog frowned, noting the strange accent of the word _Unique. _

"I have questions for you." The Egg albatross swung around so that the multitude of it's cannons was aimed directly toward them.

"What makes you think I'm going to answer any of your questions?" Suddenly a barrage of bullets and missiles rocketed out of the smoke, striking the side of the ship with tremendous force, knocking it sideways. Sonic turned about to meet the sudden disturbance with an open mouth. Shadow simply looked back over his shoulder, muttering to himself.

"Eggman Target located...destroy…obliterate…eliminate!" Omega declared, bursting forth, his red visor locked onto his creator, both arms raised to fire another round.

"Omega, you outdated scrap heap!" Eggman yelled angrily. "I made you! I fitted every sheet of metal, every gear, ever wire, ever circuit in place. How dare you fire on me!" Omega, thankfully, was not swayed by the petty words, striking the Egg Albatross again with a second barrage, knocking off several cannons, destroying two Egg pawns and crippling one of the wings. "You'll pay for this." Shadow looked slightly disappointed that his talk with Eggman had been cut sort. But they were taking Eggman in one way or the other, so he guessed that they could do it this way.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to give me a hand?" He asked, turning toward Sonic as Omega charged into the fray. The blue hedgehog was still in a stunned state, so he stood there open mouthed for a moment before his senses kicked in.

"Er…right." 

Shadow nodded and darted through the dust, sliding from side to side with effortless movements to join Omega in the fight. Eggman's ship targeted all cannons toward him, but each shot missed it's target by miles. Sonic quickly following. His mind was still racing. Shadow…ALIVE?! This had to be some kind of weird hallucination. Yes, that was it. He was still in the hospital, seeing things thanks to the pain killing drugs they'd put into him. 

He was proved wrong however when a bullet from the Egg Albatross grazed his arm, sending a very real signal of pain.

Shadow toured through the strings holding the balloon to the warship underneath, free from this extra weight, Eggman's half went flying up a short distance while the other half plummeted to earth, bursting into flames upon contact. Omega kept up his attack upon the balloon, trying to burst it with relentless machine gun barrage. He wasn't succeeding, however he did manage to blow a few cannons of the side. Sonic chose that moment to some tearing it, slipping through the spins of the propeller and straight toward the Egg Hawk. Eggman tried to fire more missiles, only to discover that he was out of ammunition. Sonic wasn't no time, a super spin destroying the clamps holding the Egg Hawk to the balloon. 

"Ah! RETREAT! Eggman yelled, pushing the balloon aided to float aim slyly up toward the sky with the Egg Hawks hidden metallic arm, attempting to make a run for it.

"Your not going anywhere!" Omega stated, his body turning about an entire 180 degree and firing every spare missile he had left at point black range straight into the Egg Hawk's heart. Metal tore against metal, the force of the explosion ripping the metallic bird to pieces within a matter of moments. Eggman tired to eject his pod, but he was a fraction of a second too late. He screamed out load as the burning fire reached him, engulfing his body for a moment before he was thrown from his cockpit as the machine erupted, screaming at the top of his lungs. Then, it ended very suddenly.

As he fell directly onto the lance of a partially destroyed Egg pawn, half buried in the rubble, impaling himself through the chest. Sonic and Shadow grimaced. That was something they wouldn't wish on anyone, not even Eggman. Omega picked himself up, silent for a moment, before he cautiously approached. His former creator was not moving.

The two hedgehog approached in a stunned silence. After all the epic battles Sonic and Eggman had fought, the blue hedgehog never would have imaged that this is the way his ach nemesis would be defeated. 

Eggman sat completely still, his face tilted down toward the floor. It was then however that they all realized something was wrong, even with the metal pole through his chest, he wasn't bleeding. No blood at all, he was just sitting there. Shadow blinked in curiosity, before prodding his lightly. Instantly, a large sheet of metal slid to one side, revealing a built in screen inside his body. 

"Damn it, it's a fake!" Shadow swore loudly through clenched teeth. The screen light, revealing the dictator himself, his real self. He was laughing loudly, as usual, sneering at them with a wide smile. Omega clenched a fist, fuming inside his metallic body that the Doctor had escaped his wrath.

"Once again, you fools have fallen directly into my trap." The two hedgehog growled at him. Rage fuming in both their hearts. "From these canyons, watch as I conquer the world with my new Air fleet." With a sudden, ear splitting roar, the ground itself seem to be splitting apart. Tails and Chris X tornado watched in amazement was the rock columns crumbled, falling down to earth. Like some kind of gigantic avalanche.

"Hey, what's going on?" Tails demanded. Without moments, a giant void spilt open in the ground, threatening to swallow everything around it, had not something else been coming out of it. A colossal multitude of metal vessels burst through and into the air, hidden from sight by a layer of rock all this time. There were thousands of them, flying upwards like an insidious black warm. Each metal ship made to look like a fish, each one flying next to the other like a steal school. Then came the big one, a ship unlike any other, a colossal titan that cast a shadow over the entire mountain region. 

Rouge looked up, mouth wide open in astonishment. Knuckles stepped back, taken aback by it's sheer size, blanketing the entire sky like it's metallic skin.

Made to look like a manta ray, it dwarfed all the others. Sheet after sheet of metal made up an endless purple skin as it roared past them, grasping for the freedom of the sky, straining against the earth's crust just to do so. 

They couldn't see the details very well from here, with all the clouds of dust and smoke kicking about, but it's colossal size was not lost on them. Already two entire minutes had past and still the ship did not look like it was all the way out of it's hiding hole. 

"A trap to stall for time!" Sonic exclaimed, realizing his mistake. The trap had never been meant to destroy them, mealy to buy enough time for Eggman to get his fleet ready to go. 

"You haven't won yet Eggman." Shadow snarled, waving a finger in the screens direction. 

"I think you'll find I have." Eggman replied, before the screen went dead. In a fit of rage, Shadow kicked it, shattering the glass. As soon as he did so however, the entire robotic body melted away, becoming less tangible than liquid, sliding down into a silvery puddle amongst the rubble. Shadow groaned angrily, standing away from it.

"Eggman target re-located." Omega announced, staring upwards toward the colossal ship as it made it's way into the sky. Now they were all able to see the thousands of laser turrets on it's under side. "Aboard Fleet Flag ship. Intercept mode activated." Without pause, Omega' jet's turned themselves on and he disappeared through the bellowing clouds of dust and smoke all around. 

Sonic and Shadow were left alone. 

"Shadow…" Sonic began.

"Don't call me that." The black hedgehog cut him off. Sonic stared at him, blinking in surprise. "At least not until I can be sure that I AM Shadow."

As they disappeared through the smoke, the puddle came right back to life, reassuming a physical shape. Twisting upwards into a thick column, that sprouted outward to become solid once again.

Not an Eggman form, but one far more sleek and streamlined. A pair of glowing red eyes staring after the two hedgehogs. The return of the Ultimate life form was an ever so slight oversight, but his presence was of no real importance. In fact, he had helped Metal Sonic evolve again. 

When Shadow had touched him, he had used that opportunity to copy his life data and as soon as they were gone, he began downloading it into his being. His skin shimmered and quickly, along each spine he gained a long white highlight, copying Shadow's famous streaks almost perfectly. The data of the ultimate life form had one other important enhancement. Metal Sonic reached into his internal energy source and activated a new program. Instantly he disappeared in a green haze, before becoming visible again some distance away.

"Chaos control!" He laughed out load. There was nothing that could stop him now. He was truly was invincible. With the Egg fleet flying directly overhead, casting shadow down onto the ground. A shadow that would soon engulf the entire world.

Earth…was his for the taking!

(In Chris' voice)

Oh no! Eggman's fleet is on the move! An armada of robots! Can Sonic stop it? His odds are improving, everyone's there to lend a helping hand. But what's going on behind the scenes? What's Metal Sonic up to with the Master Emerald? Find out Next time on Sonic X, Egg Fleet Rising! Don't miss it!

(Thanks to One Winged Kuja for best Sonic Fanfic nomination) 

(Hope Bokkun's execution didn't scare some people off the fic? If so, give me an email and tell me what you think of that part?)


	7. Episode 51, part 1

(I do not own Sonic, Sonic X, Sonic heroes or any Sega game. Yuji Naka is the big guy, not me. "Averts lowly eyes".) I do own the fic itself though.)

_Sorry this took so long_

**S.O.N.I.C Go!**

**S.O.N.I.C Go!**

**Go! Go! Go! Go! Let's Go!**

**Episode 51**: Egg Fleet Rising

"Ok, we're in." Espio declared, his fingers running over the keyboard. The access codes they had downloaded from the hidden depot had indeed, as their client told them, allowed them to gain access to the Eggman Empire's computer systems. Now back at their agency headquarters, Espio currently was in the process of skimming through the files to see if he could locate anything that would give them a clue to their client's whereabouts. Vector was urging him to work faster, every moment that went by without cash in his hands he got more edgy. Espio however requested absolute silence from both of his comrades. This was extremely delicate work, and he didn't want to trip any alarm programs built into the system to detect hackers. 

Silence of course, was not one of Charmee's favourite things.

"I'm bored." He said out load, hovering in the air over Vector's head. Espio nearly slipped a key, possibly entering a command that may have alerted his presence in the system.

"Be quiet!" Vector snarled, clamping a hand over the bee's mouth and dragging him down into a head lock. Espio, despite the outburst managed to keep going. A sense of urgency grew amongst them as time passed in silence, Espio typing with delicate finger work, Vector's hand held over the bee's mouth and Charmee struggling to breath with a glove in the way.

"Almost there." The chameleon said quietly. Charmee and Vector leaned in closer in curiosity, then closer still. Espio stopped typing long enough to look back at them, peering over his shoulder, the end of Vector's snout nearly pressing against the plasma screen. "Do you mind?" He asked, shoving the large scaly nose backward. Their client hadn't been in contact with them for over twenty four hours now and Vector was starting to get slightly agitated. Their promised giant pay check was on the line.

"Ok, I've found him!" Espio announced, smacking his palm down on the table side.

"YES!" Vector and Charmee declared high fiving and then doing some kind of bizarre victory dance. 

"Uh oh." The Chameleon added loudly. Vector and Charmee paused in mid prance, quickly reassuming their positions at his side. 

"Uh oh? Uh Oh what? Is that a good Uh oh or a bad Uh oh?" Vector asked, looking slightly worried. Espio was silent, his lips pressed together.

"Apparently our client's being transferred to something called Operation Final Egg." He put in, leaning closer to see if he'd done something wrong. "I'll see if I can find out what that actually…." He paused, pulling up the information he requested. He read on in silence for a moment. "Oh crap!" He added sharply, backing away from the screen.

"What now?" Vector asked in exasperation, leaning over Espio's shoulder. Espio swallowed hard, slouching back into his chair, his gaze locked onto the screen. 

"Operation Final Egg is a massive Air fleet, about the size of the entire world's culminated air force. Eggman's deploying as part of his main attack force." Charmee flew in front of their faces, hovering in front of the screen, staring the diagrams Espio had brought up, full of blue prints for the Egg Fleet. Massive ships twice the size of anything the military currently had.

"When?" Vector asked. Espio looked back, his eyes wide.

"Five minutes ago." As if on cue, whatever light was coming in through the blinds on the window disappeared, leaving them in near complete darkness. A low rumble began to make itself heard, growing in volume and pitch with each passing moment. Loud, frightened shouts could instantly be heard coming from outside. Espio and the others looked up, as if expecting the answer to come from the ceiling. "What's going on?" They asked each other, before having the sense to step outside and look up for themselves. Outside, people were standing around, pointing up at the darkened sky, yelling to each other. Mothers grabbed their children and headed for the nearest building, cards swerved to a stop, colliding into each other, policemen running with the crowds in a chaotic rush. Blanking out the sun was the Whale Shark Flag ship of the Egg Fleet, it was like the sky had just been replaced by a metal fish, possibly rivalling the city with its size. 

Smaller ships, but large in their own right flew underneath in their thousands. Each one made to look exactly like a fish, giving the impression of a gigantic school flying overhead. 

"Holy mother of…" Large doors on each side of each ship were opening and thousands more Eggpawns were parachuting out of them. Adding to the escalating and dangerous sitation was the fact that these Eggpawns were the upgraded versions, as larger as any of Eggman's robots and made from steel. Each clad in tight fitting steal armour, wielding a large spiking hammer. Like spitting rain they descended toward the streets, landing with a loud thud, shaking the ground and crushing cars beneath them. This was exactly what Eggman had promised. People ran in terror, tripping over each others in a vain attempt to get away. Cars swerved in a U turn, but ended up smashing into other on coming cars and trucks.

"This can not end well." Vector muttered.

The arrival of the massive fleet on the south eastern shores of the United States was being documented around the world by satellite surveillance. The Eggman Empire had assembled the largest fleet the world had ever seen and every Government around the world was watching it, learning to their horror that Eggman had not been bluffing. The President was already on the phone at the White House, yelling down the phone to mobilise the military to combat the threat at once. Already, thousands of the new robotic soldiers and the larger combat walkers were pouring out of Area 99, set on an intercept course. 

"This is some kind of joke right?" Chris asked, staring in horror and awe at the Egg fleet as the X tornado soured toward it.

"I'm not laughing." Tails replied, his face set into a frown. All on board, apart from Big whose only concern was rescuing his little buddy, were feeling insignificantly small.  Sonic could see the magnitude of the task ahead of him. Never before had he seen such a culmination of the Empires strength. Every other thought, even the strange and miraculous appearance of the black and red Hedgehog Shadow was blotted out. There were literally thousands of ships, far more than he could ever hope to destroy alone. Thankfully, he was not alone. 

"You up for this Knuckles?" He asked the red Echidna, two was standing on the outside of the X tornado with him. The Echidna didn't reply for a moment. His gaze was locked onto the massive Whale shark flag ship.

"There's only one thing powerful to keep that monster up in the air." He stated.

"The Master emerald!" The blue hedgehog added, catching on. A smile crossed his face. "Ok, then all we need to do with find that big gem of ours and remove it."

"I doubt it's going to be that easy." Amy managed to mutter, her hammer poised on her knee. This new metal one inflicted far more damage than her previous wooden one did. "But we've got the rough outline of a plan and I suppose that's better than nothing."

"Ok, Amy, you Tails and Chris go find Cheese." Sonic shouted down, the wind picking up outside, nearly browning out his voice. "Knuckles and I'll try to get the Master Emerald back."

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Vector pulled himself, and the rest of Chaotix who were clinging onto his back for dear life up and over the edge of the Flag ship, out of breath having climbed so far. It had been Charmee who'd managed to fly them up to the battleship itself, straining his small wings but Vector, with his strength had had to do the rest as the bee couldn't fly them any further. It had taken them a full ten minutes just to scale the sheer bulk of the ship, evading attention by the Gun turrets. In the distance, they could see the air force moving to intercept the fleet and the Army below attemping flush the Large Egg pawns out of the city. Thankfully they didn't have to worry about fighting the Eggman Empire. They were here for one thing and one thing only, to rescue their client and then run like crazy.

"You ok Vector?" Espio asked giving the Vector a once over look. The crocodile was on his hands and knees, breathing hard. "You look kinda flush." Vector groaned and heaved himself to his feet, trying to display some strength.

"Never better!" He said with a laugh, his hands on his hips, large beads of sweat sliding down his face. "Besides, I don't have time to rest now. Once we start a job, we finish a job. That's our policy."

"There's that 'P' word again." Espio remarked, surveying their surroundings. The Flag ship, in a true sense, did not have a deck. Rather, short platforms that stood on the top of it's segmented sectors, made up it's skin. Just below them lay a sheer drop, down toward the river below. A ravine between two canyons walls of dark steel, wires and pipes running across the void before them. Large bridges of twisted metal ran out in each direction, each one having a different destination. Large building like structures jutted out here and there, some with gun turrets on the top of them. From larger platforms some distance away, more and more of the Egg Fleet's small battleships were being launched, blaring overhead with regular two second intervals. Everywhere it seemed; the Doctor's facial insignia was placed on large yellow emblems. 

"Likes the look of his own face doesn't he?" Charmee remarked. 

"Enough talk boys." Vector stepped in, looking around at the colossal size of the vessel that he now stood upon, now realizing the magnitude of the task that lay ahead of them. "Our clients somewhere aboard this flying tub, so let's go find him!"

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The Egg fleet spanned for miles, like a school of metal fish swimming through enthral water. The battleship, surrounded by the fighters was colossal. The fins acting as rudders to steer themselves through the air. The blue battleships where the largest, shadowing the others as they flew overhead. Down each of their fronts of was a large platform, each carrying large gun emplacements on each side, creating the impression of a Sawfish. There were about ten in all, each leading a squadron of smaller ships onward.

Lower down in size where the red ones, nowhere near as large as the others, but what they lacked in size they made up for with fire power and sheer numbers. They were the main bulk of the fleet, a near endless sea of them flying forward.

And finally the smallest ships, no bigger than an ordinary truck, piloted by a single Eggpawn. Each ship was carrying a good dozen of them, ready to be deployed in a battle situation.

None of them compared in size to the flag ship, the largest vessel Eggman had ever conceived, a giant so large that its shadow placed miles of ground underneath it in darkness. Its skin was laden with large gun turrets, capable to blasting an opponent from any direction.  Its giant sweeping wings covering a distance of at least a mile in both directions, an inconceivable metal mass that put Station Square in its shadow. Shadow was not interested in it's, admittedly, impressive size. Eggman was here somewhere, he would find him and if necessary beat the answers he desired out of him. The interior of the Flag ship, as he expected was a maze of corridors leading this way and that, riddled with doors. Some leading to interior rooms, others into thin air, the bottomless voids between the ships' segmented parts. Eggman, he observed, was a self important person and so logic dictated that he would find him in the control room. Only question was, where was it? Omega was already off topside, smashing his way through Thousands of Egg pawns and thoroughly enjoying himself. Judging by the large explosions that were coming from somewhere above, followed quickly by a loud scream of...

_"Exterminate!"_

Rouge and the other military forces were, somewhere doing, something. But their endeavours disinterested him. They could do whatever they wanted; carry on with their pointless little war if they so wished. 

Shadow stopped when he came to a large shaft at the entrance of the passageway, leading upward into the darkness. Since he'd entered from the bottom level and checked all the rooms here, he supposed he'd have to scale it. The sides however were completely smooth, without a single crevice to hold onto to. Yet, somehow, he didn't see this was much of an obstacle. Something in side him, an instinctive feeling told him to simply step forth and fly up. Obeying this feeling without so much as thinking for a moment. He stepped forward and instantly, small jets on the underside of each foot came to life, propelling him upwards. As soon as he gained sufficient momentum, placing his feet against the side of the wall and began skating up it, swinging his body from side to side. He supposed, thinking about it now, that this should surprise him but it felt so natural it felt odd to question it.  Finally, light began peering at him, coming closer and closer as he went on. Then, he rushed forward, gaining sufficient speed to break through the grating at the top of the shaft, throwing himself out into new surroundings. 

This new chamber was somewhere the middle of the ship, he guessed, seeing as show a row of windows, presumable made out of bullet proof glass ran along the outside walls. The floor was completely flat and the walls arched, the only entrance to the room it seemed being the grate in the floor and a small metal door on the far side of the room. Several large fans were rotating around him; just side the entrances to large pipes running out from regular intervals around the walls. Obviously this place was some sort of exhaust port, where the fumes created by the engines were sent to be expelled. 

Well, as least he was getting somewhere now. But he had some distance to go before he got the surface, which was still a long way up. From there he should be able to locate Eggman without too much difficulty. His anxious need for answer was still eating away at him. He needed to know, was he the real Shadow or not? He could not live without knowing.

_"Intruder!"_ Shouted a voice, Shadow shout around as a large Eggpawn burst in through a side door hidden partially behind a large pipe. It was about the size of the large updated models, but was armed with the traditional spear and round shield, engraved with large spikes. Its armour was a bright gold in colour and outlined with a red highlight. A large curved spike ran from it's forward, curving upward. It was hovered just above the floor by using two large spikes on it's back, jets on the under side. 

Printed in big white letters on it's chest plate was _E106: Egg Emperor prototype. _

It flew forward, lance held ready in a slashing position. Shadow simply slid to the side, then again as it rebounded for a second attack. 

"So you came to play?" He said casually, a smirk spreading over his lips. "Then let's play!" _(Line from Vegeta in DBZ, sorry)_

The X tornado couldn't get close enough to the Flag ship for Sonic and Knuckles to jump on, so they'd had to double back and try somewhere else. There simply too many bullets flying around for Tails to keep the X tornado in an upright position long enough. Eventually, they managed ton find a relatively peaceful area just behind one of the larger swordfish like ships.

No one really notice Big jump off at that point.

A loud yell of ..."FROGGY!" Floated in the air briefly after he disappeared.

Sonic and Knuckles looked down. They'd have to jump from ship to ship, but they get to the Flag ship from here.

"I'm coming with you Sonic! Tails stated one hand on the controls of the plane. Sonic was about to contradict him, but then he saw the seriousness in the young foxes eyes. He had after all said that he was with Sonic on this one.

"Alright then…" He said softly, before jumping off toward the fleet below.

"Chris take the controls." Tails said simply, preparing to follow.

"WHAT!" Chris yelled, but silenced himself as he had to jump over the seat in front to grab the controls as Tails flew after his old friend. "He didn't even ask if I know how to fly this thing!" 

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It felt right. At least Sonic and Tails through it felt right, racing alongside one another, united together in the fight. Knuckles was to busy concentrated one much he was going to enjoy pounding Eggman into the ground for compromising the safety of the emerald.

They leapt from ship to ship, slipping in between streams of bullets and missile fire before they landed again, racing on. However, once they reached one of the larger blue ships they found their path was blocked by two of the large, updated Eggpawns, each towering above them like metallic guardians. The hammers resting on their shoulders, one fist curled around the handle. 

"Destroy!" They both said at once, lifting their hammers up, preparing to swing them down.

"YeeHAAA!" A voice exclaimed over the radio in the X tornado and instantly, several fighter jets shot past them, assuming formation instantly and letting a torrent of machine gun fire tear into the Large Egg pawns, knocking them down. Sonic and the others took this opportunity to carry on, racing forward in a blur of blur, red and orange. "What, going to have all the fun without us?" The voice asked. 

"This that who I think it is?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow at the familiar voice. The leading plane curved around in a U bend and shot back, quickly followed by the others, doing a barrel roll before ploughing into the Egg fleet again, machine guns blazing. "There's only one guy I know besides Sonic who can move that fast." He added, looking out the window and getting a very brief glimpse of the pilot in the leading striker plane, whose face was hidden behind a visor, but give him a thumbs up. Chris knew exactly who it was instantly. "Uncle Sam!"

Each plane was blood red and snow white, each wing highlighted by a golden strip, underneath which was the S-Team logo. The President had just authorized the use of experimental new speed planes in order to combat the approaching Egg fleet. Sam himself preferred racing along the ground, it had some tradition in it, but up here wasn't as bad as he'd originally imagined. 

"Hey there Chris, thought I might find you guys up here. Just leave these clunkers to me ok?" Sam replied over the radio, doing a loop the loop combined with a twirl just to show off. 

The world around them a blur, Sonic and the others kept their target, the massive flag shi directly in front of them as they ran. Sonic wasn't exactly sure what they where going to do once they got there. Like most of his plans, he was making it up as he went. Suddenly, before his eyes he managed to glimpse a very familiar flash of red. He knew it at once.

"STOP!" Sonic cried, pushing his let foot forward, searching to a halt. Knuckles and Tails did the same. They were about to ask why they'd stopped, but the answer was very plain. Tails went completely white under his fur, his knees knocking. Knuckles paused only before a moment, before hatred began sinking into his face, burning in his eyes.

Standing directly in they're way was Metal Sonic, his arms were crossed and his eyes glowing bright red. 

Sonic swallowed hard. There they where again, those glowing red eyes that somehow managed to strike fear into him. He didn't show it, remaining stead fast against their gaze. 

"Access denied!" Metal Sonic stated, before descending into a fighting stance.  Knuckles began to advanced, his fists clenched.

"No." Sonic said sharply. His two companions looked back at him, stunned. "Go on ahead, he's mine." 

"Sonic, are you sure?" Tails asked; then he looked up toward the sky in expiration. "Right, of course you are." Knuckles, who fully intended to deal Metal Sonic one of his best punches from his own humiliating defeat was reluctant to leave, but eventually he and Tails began edging their way around Metal Sonic, whose attention was focused completely on the blue hedgehog. Once they had cleared a safe distance, they turned and began running as fast as they could go. Only Metal Sonic and Sonic were left there, chaos reigning around them

"Not interested in them I see." Sonic muttered. Metal Sonic shrugged.

"It's you I need. Surrender, let me copy your data and then I'll dispatch you mercifully quick." 

"Tempting offer." Sonic said softly, trying to look like he was considering it. "Nah...I'll pass if it's all the same with you. I'd rather get right down to the nitty gritty." Metal Sonic's eyes glowed even brighter. 

_Commercial break_

**Flip Card 1**: _Egg emperor prototype_

(Sorry if this doesn't read as well as I meant. As soon as I finish the fanfic, I'm going to revise it.)


	8. Episode 51, part 2

__

(I do not own sonic X, or Sonic in general)

(Sorry for short chapter) 

Flip card 2: Whale Shark flag ship

"Believe it or not, I've been looking forward to fighting you again." Sonic stated with a keen smirk on his face as both her and his metal copy circled each other, keeping out of a radius of a few feet. Everywhere around them the Egg Fleet clashed with the air force, and as the airal battle progressed it soon became obvious who would win. The Egg fleet out matched the military in both numbers and technological capability. Planes and the flaming remains of G.U.N walkers were tumbling to the ground below. Sonic knew that time was running out, but he had other pressing business to attend to right here. Metal Sonic was not going to beat him again.

"I fail to see the logic." Metal Sonic replied, his eyes maintaining a steady red glow, his talons clenching and unclenching with a regular rhythm.. "You are no match for me, you surly must realise this. So the reasoning behind your challenge eludes me." He paused, standing directly in the other path was lead to the Flag ship, the luminous titan just behind the battleship they were presently standing on. So large was it's bulk it nearly blocked out the entire sky. "Unless of course you believe that your buying time for your friends." he placed his hands on his hips. "Don't you realize that Lord Eggman anticipates all, your friends are walking into another of his ingenious traps!" Sonic stopped still.

"They'll deal with it." He said angrily, putting his faith in them. Metal Sonic let his arms drop to his sides, his eyes glowing intently. 

"I doubt that, now, back to unfinished business." Sonic smirked and snapped his neck from side to side. 

"Thought you'd never ask!"

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The tugging feeling of guilt in Amy's stomach finally became too much for her to bear. Without hesitating she pushed the glass roof above her aside, exposing herself to the lashing winds. Her hammer in her grip.

"Chris, I'm off!"

"Say what?!" Chris exclaimed, who was still trying to learn the Controls of the 

"I can't sit here while Sonic gets all the fun." She said with a smirk, before sliding over the side, leaving Chris alone in the X tornado. 

"What is it with these guys?" He asked himself before pulling the controls sharply upward to avoid colliding head first with one of the Egg Fleet's small fighters.

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Blow after powerful blow was exchanged, painfully shockwaves spreading through both their bodies, yet despite this they continued. Two blur blur's, one slightly larger than the other leaping after each other from ship to ship, occasionally making contact, lightning fast barrages of kicks and punches being exchanged as they did so. Sonic was already noticed at Metal Sonic had grown stronger and faster since they last met, but quite frankly he didn't care. 

Metal Sonic shot back after Sonic's kick as deflected off his arm bracers, trying to cleave the blue hedgehog across the chest. Sonic dodged around it, pushing his body to his limits just to avoid the super fast slice. Faced with a stand off, they leapt to the side, ploughing through one of the Egg fleet's largest ships, ripping through the metal skin into the hull. The fight continued inside, tearing the ship apart as it did so. It tossed around in the air, before it's tail end exploded in a shower of fire and it fell toward the ground, drenched in flames.

"Why won't you just die?" Metal Sonic demanded, finding Sonic slip once again from his claws. Sonic looked back, his usual cocky smirk on his face.

"Sorry, I've got other plans!" Metal Sonic was beginning to see exactly why Eggman hated Sonic so much. 

The two combatants raced alongside each ship, jumping from vessel to vessel, exchanging blows as they came close. Shown only as momentary flashes of light. 

"Where'd he go?" Sonic asked himself, looking back over his shoulder as he shot up onto the top of one of the larger battleships. 

"Right here!" Something very hard smashed into the back of his head, sending him flying over the edge of the battleship. He would have plummeted to his doom had he not activated the crystal ring attached to his arm a second earlier, his reserves of strength pouring into his body. Filled with new energy, Sonic swung his entire body around 180 degrees and catch out of the edge. 

Using what momentum he had, he propelled himself back onto the deck, catching Metal Sonic off guard with a sharp blow to the chin. The robot stammered back a few paces, before regaining himself and launching toward, talons cleaving Sonic across the side, leaving four parallel gash marks in his side. 

Sonic ignoring the stinging pain. He knew he only had a short time before the effects from the crystal, like any other ring, wore off so he pushed himself. Forcing his body to match Metal Sonic blow for blow, regardless of how fast the android could move itself. A punch, then a kick, the another punch. Each combatant blocked their enemies attack before retaliating, finding their own attack defended against. 

However, this stalemate didn't last long. Metal Sonic blocked a kick with his left bracer and then swung his lower power around completely, knocking Sonic off his feet and straight through the metal skin of the battleship before he could react. The ship beneath them shuddered slightly with the impact. Metal Sonic paused only briefly, before righting himself and walking over to the hole he had just made. The metal platting was caved in completely, hanging over the edge and down into the ships interior. Metal Sonic beat down to examine it further. 

There was a trace of blood left on the side of the splintered metal, but Sonic himself was nowhere to be seen. The robot heaved himself to his feet.

"Hiding are we?" Metal Sonic asked, standing perfectly still. "Seems Eggman's prediction was correct, your first defeat had shattered your confidence and turned you into a coward." His sensors picked up movement coming from behind him and turned to confront it. It wasn't Sonic as he'd expected, it was that pink hedgehog girl. He brought up her file on his internal system. Amy rose. Limited strength and no distinctive super abilities. Hardly a threat.

"Take this you bully!" She yelled and swung her hammer down, impacting directly onto the side of Metal Sonic's head, which to her horror didn't even flinch. Metal Sonic's red disc like eyes swirled to the side, staring at her as they began to glow. 

"Organics, none of them had so much as several brain cells in their empty heads." His claws lashed out, latching around Amy's head in an iron grip. She dropped her hammer in surprise, trying to claw at the vice like hand. She strength was nothing compared to his so she struggled in vain. She tried to kick him in the groin, but found that there wasn't anything there to kick. his talons were sinking into her skin, drawing blood. She squealed, struggling harder to escape. 

Metal Sonic relinquished his grip when Sonic slammed at full speed directly into him, knocking the robot to the ground. Amy fell to her knees, coughing. Metal Sonic snapped his head to the side, his entire visor glowing red. He pulled himself up and looked up in his opponents direction.

"You're…" Sonic stated, his outline highlighted white. Metal Sonic looked up. His sensors read Sonic's heart rate and brainwave activities had just skyrocketed. "Going to pay for that!" Metal Sonic did not understand, only this kind of energy level was detected during Super Sonic transformation. And indeed, Sonic's quills were turning golden yellow and lancing upwards before returning to normal. Like his body was trying to turn super, but lacked the energy from the Chaos emeralds to do so. 

Suddenly, the metallic hedgehog was sent flying by what seemed like an invisible punch. Sonic had moved so fast, even he hadn't been able to see it. While in fall, Sonic leapt up and swung his arms over his head, clenching both fists and hammered Metal Sonic into the floor, crashing through it and into the ships interior. Amy looked up. Never before, had she seen anything quite like this. Sonic was fast granted, but not this fast. 

Metal Sonic did not understand, he had had barley enough time to protect himself from the blow. The information he had about Sonic in his memory system clearly states that that should not be possible for him. A super spin slammed directly into Metal Sonic's mid section, propelling him upward and out into the air, closely followed by a angry blue hedgehog, rage etched into every muscle on his face. Metal Sonic righted himself in mid air and spread his arms and legs, slowing his ascended, red eyes glowing intently. 

"DIE!" He screamed and launched himself forward, talons outstretched, tensing both arms to slash the hedgehog as Sonic leapt toward him. Amy was barely able to keep up with her, her eyes were simply to slow. All she could make out were momentary still images flashing around her, each one depicting a scene of battle. 

Suddenly, everything went silent, apart from the scream of war that reigned all around them. Amy managed to get to her feet, using her hammer for support. She blinking, sighting something in front of her, then she yelped and duck to avoid some object come flying over her head. It colliding into the ship behind her, bounced off, fell onto another ship, fell off again before finally smashing itself through a small fighter, which in turn clouded into the side of the Flag ship, a large fire ball erupted into the air. 

"Sonic!" She cried, fearing the worst.

"You called?" Asked a voice from behind her. She turned to find the blue hedgehog standing there, very out of breath and covered in scratched and bruises but very much alive. 

"You're alive!" Shed cried, flinging herself around him, knocking him to the ground and began kissing him on the cheek over and over again. She tried vainly to pull himself away but found his own strength sapped. "Then.." She added, looking confused all of a sudden. "Who as that I just saw smashed his way through several ships?"

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"He…" Metal Sonic began, struggling to get up. "Beat me?" A spike of electrical energy lanced down his arm, causing him to loose strength so he collapsed down again. "Just not possible." 

His ran through the battle again in super quick speed, analysing the whole thing. The statistics stated he should have won with ease. It made no rational sense. It occurred to him that Sonic himself wasn't rational, like Eggman he was an organic, flawed in many ways yet with an annoyed unpredictable streak. He quickly deduce that it was this factor that allowed the defeat. It was mere oversight, nothing more. 

Slowly, his form dematerialised and deceased into liquid, seeping down through the metal floor inside the flag ship, retreated from the bellowing flames around him. It was time to go ahead with the operation. Everything, despite set backs, was proceeding as planed. Those brainless organic creatures had no idea what was really going on, they were too busy fighting the Egg fleet. His ruse had worked perfectly. 

Metal Sonic rematerialized inside on of the inner corridors inside the flag ship itself. It took a moment because of his weakened state, but eventually he managed to force himself solid again. Every now and again the ship shook violently. 

The Egg fleet was under attack from all sides. Eggman's plan, while it worked on paper, was failing. Several battleships had arrived from the United Nations forces in the bay Station Square sat opposite, each armed with formidable anti-aircraft guns.

Let them shoot the fleet down, for all the good it was going to do them in the end.


	9. Episode 51, part 3

(It's taking me a long time to update anything these days…)

(I do not own Sonic, Sonic X, Sonic Heroes or anything related.)

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Shadow slid to the side, dodging around a barrage of missile air, rolling over the floor before firing a chaos spear attack directly towards it. The Egg pawn drew it's shield back, defending itself from the attack, before drawing it's lance and charging after him. Shadow leapt up a second before the lance was upon him, went into a spin in mid air and smashed an attack straight onto it's head, shattering the large curved horn.

The Egg pawn shoot around, trying to catch Shadow as he came down with a slash of it's lance, it missed, leaving another opportunity for Shadow to attack.

The black hedgehog, as soon he reached the floor, rebounded and leapt up with a flying kick straight to the Egg pawns chest, knocking it over and onto the floor. While it was sprawling there, Shadow drew his arm back and then threw it forward, unleashing another chaos spear. He was luckier with his attack this time, as it managed to rip through the Egg pawn's shoulder, tearing off the arm with the shield, which fell to the ground with a heavy thud, wires and cables hanging out of the large hole.

"Damaged received, back up systems activated." It announced in a monotone voice, before it's jets around the back turned themselves on and several rockets mounted to the underside righted the heavy robot. _"Destroy target!_

"Wonder if this thing actually realises it's chances of winning are zero?" Shadow asked himself, sounding bored, before skating forward and slamming a kick directly into the Egg pawns front. It floated back a few feet, before driving forward lance slicing through the air. Shadow dived to the side, rolled along the ground and launched another chaos spear directly into the Egg pawns soft underside. The robot disappeared in a cloud of smoke, then reappeared instantly out the other side, a large gapping hole in it's side. This was the opening Shadow really needed, he skated in close, then tore through the robot with his own version of the super spin, one than inflicts far more damage then the ordinary technique.

The robotic solider swayed in the air for a moment, struggling to keep itself stable, before swinging around and jabbing it's lance forward. Shadow narrowly managed to avoid the swing by sliding to the side. It's movements were far slower now, Shadow knew that he had all but won.

Finally, it stopped just to conserve it's power, and that's when Shadow dealt the final blow. Arching his right arm behind him, his cupped his hand and began to focus his own energy. Another small ball of yellow energy began burning between his fingers, growing in size. "Chaos Spear!"

His arm came forward and the ball separated and reformed into several large bolts, which hovered in the air only momentarily before screeching through the air, tearing into the robots metal skin. A huge explosion tore through it's body, throwing metal limbs apart. Whatever was left of the robot exploded into pieces, scattering around in a fire storm.

It was in moments like this that Shadow felt a connection to the past. What he had lost, perhaps he could relive briefly in battle. But still, after it was all over he was left hollow again. It was a maddening experience.

Slipping between the blades of one of the large fans effortlessly, Shadow continued his progress, the metal pipes beyond slowly tilting upward. It was happeneing, something he couldn't explain or tried to fight. Every so often, a picture would appear in his mind. The picture would be different each and every time, but each one would involved a teenager girl with pale blond hair and sea blue eyes. He shook his head angrily, bearing his teeth.

"Eggman what did you do to me!?"

* * *

Three of the larger Eggpawn models stood blocking the large lock down doors to the very centre of the Flag ship. Their sensors locked onto the two objects moving at high speed down the corridor toward them. Targets had been identified long ago as intruders. The large hammer they held balanced on their shoulders they swung around, preparing themselves for the collision. Estimated ten seconds till impact. Those ten seconds flew by and before they could so much as lit their hammers, Knuckles and Tails ploughed into them, ripping their metallic frames apart.

With the guards now down in several pieces, they turned their attention to the door. One solid punch from Knuckles was all it needed, the dented metal door at each five feet thick went flying inward.

"We're here." Tails exclaimed, rushing in. The chamber beyond was obviously the control room for the flag ship. Machinery, computer panels and terminals ran along the outside of the room. A large computer screen at the far side was displaying the battle from the Flag ships point of view.

Incased in a large pillar of metal, wires and pipes feeding off it was the object to which Knuckles entire life was bound.

"About time." He said to himself, walking up to the emerald as Tails looked over the controls. He laid his hand upon the jewel and it glowed in response. "Don't worry I'll get you home and I'll make sure no one take you away again." He raised his other hand, ready to tear away at it's constraints.

"Wait!" Tails said sharply, darting in front of the Echidna.

"What? Why?" Knuckles asked, looking slightly angry. Tails didn't reply for a moment, he looked up to the Emerald. He studied it for a moment before looking over the machinery it was encased in.

"The Master Emerald powering all this." He replied, gesturing to the room around them. "Like Angel Island, without it's sustaining energy it'll plummet." He paused to look back, giving Knuckles a sly look over his shoulder. "You want to be here when that happens?" Knuckles hesitated. "No, didn't think so."

"Well if I can't simply remove it then what do we do?"

"Try to land this giant of course." the fox replied. Knuckles looked at him dumfounded.

"Can you do that?" He asked. Tails looked over the controls, the thousands of levers, buttons and screens.

"I don't know." He replied.

* * *

"S-Team this is Speed king." Sam yelled into his radio. "We have multiple targets on the felt hand side." Two of the S-Team planes came on Sam's left flank, two missiles already on their targets.

The entire flagship shock violently for a moment as if ensnared in some giant net. Two of the smaller battleships collided with it's wings, both falling downward the ocean in flames. Slowly the large manta like construction began to descended, steering it's enormous bulk away from the city, separating itself from the fleet which was heading in the other direction.

"Look's like Doctor Eggman's making a run for it." One of the S-Team stated, giving the flag ship a glance out of the window of his plane.

"Forget about him." Sam put in, his own place side slipping to avoid a barrage of missile fire. "Let's just take out his robot stooges first."

Groaning loudly, the ship plunged head first directly into the water below, casting a giant tidal across the bay toward the Mystic Ruins. It's tail end in the tail, the flag ship remained still for a moment, before it's end came crashing down, parts of it's wing tearing off. The sea around it frothed and bubbled as it ship struggled to remain afloat for a few moments, before gently sinking into the relatively shallow water, most of it's bulk now submerged.

The shockwave in the water tipped those ships that already been shot top over, sinking them all even further into the ocean. Large waves breaking over the Mystic Ruins shoreline, pushing a great deal of water into the thick forest.

The whale shark flagship, now resting directly in the centre of the large stretch of water between the Mystic Ruins and Station square itself, was now ruined aspect of it's former self, smoke and steam rising from parts of it which were covered with black scorch marks. With it down, the other ships began dropping like flies, crashing down in sheets of flame toward the ocean, sizzling as they impacted and disappearing. As soon as the crowds that had gathered at the docks saw that victory had been achieved a great cheer went chorusing up.

The president, who was watching the live news broadcast with his collar undone and tie loosened relaxed into his chair, breathing a sigh of relief. He poured himself one last tall glass of whisky to steady his nerves and downed the entire thing in one go.

* * *

"Did we do it?" Knuckles asked, opening an eye. Tails looked up as well. The entire chamber was near ruined. Metal support beams had collapsed inward, pipes and wires spilling out onto the floor. The lighting had gone out, now the only thing that lit the chamber was the glow of the Master Emerald.

"Are we alive?" The fox asked. Knuckles was silent for a moment.

"Think so." He replied, forcing the sheet of metal that had protected them off their backs.

"Then we did it."

They stared at each other, remaining silent, before a smile broke over their faces. That smile changing into a chuckle, which in turn evolved into a laugh and finally they were left despite themselves with joy.

They were both too preoccupied to notice the sludgy, silvery substance ooze up from between the holes in the grated floor, slowly converging on itself, spiralling upwards before spreading out arms and legs, then long quills before finally solidifying. A pair of red eyes opened, their glow highlighting a metallic face.

A heavy metal foot clamped down on the floor, the loud foot step resonating throughout the chamber, Tails and Knuckles stopped laughing and whipped around but then, everything went dark……

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Vector asked looking around. One moment they'd been walking down one of the large corridors in the ship, the next all hell broke loose. The electronic lighting was out, but luckily Espio had come prepared with a flash light.

"Guess the military just won." The Chameleon replied. Vector grumbled loudly, looking around for Charmee, then found him cowering behind Espio.

"Good for them, come on, we've got a job top do."

It took some navigating, with half of the corridors now completely collapsed, impeding their progress. But eventually they found their way into the storage depo, hidden behind a large set of steal locked doors.

"He should be in here." Espio stated, pointing to a large set of iron doors in front of them. Vector flexed his arms.

"Ok then boys, leave this to me." He approached the doors, drew back a fist and began punching it over and over again, leaving large dents in the framework. The groudn beneath them shuddered with each punch, the door sliding back a few centimetres.

"Alright, we get to actually meet our client!" Charmy exclaimed wildly, buzzing overhead. The corridor they were was deserted, apart from the shells of a few Egg pawns that had been standing guards. Apparently, those army guys hadn't gotten to this level yet as it was devoid of bullet ridden robotic corpses.

"Well, he won't hold any surprises for me." Vector announced as he gained a superior smirk. With one last punch, the doors flew inward, crashing onto the floor of the chamber inside. "Doctor Eggman I presume?" Vector asked. Espio and Charmee stared each other, peering inside. Sitting next to the shattered, burnt out remains of the communications device was the would be dictator himself, the beginnings of a beard on his chin.

"Ohthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" The two robots cried, bowing to the three of them on their knees, Eggman however retained some dignity.

"You knew it was me all long didn't you?" Eggman asked, raising eyebrow, an angry frown on his face. Vector crossed his arms, a large smug smile spreading over his scaly lips.

"It's all part of being a good detective."

"Then this has all been a trap from the beginning!" Espio stated, reaching for a concealed shuriken. Eggman quickly put his arms out in front of himself defensively.

"Wait, this is no trick! I do plan on paying you!" Vector put his arm out to stop the chameleon from doing anything stupid.

"I deduced that Eggman must have been dethroned from the seat of power, probably because someone under your command didn't like being pushed around…correct?" Vector asked, Eggman's frown deepened.

"Correct." Vector stood forward, arms outstretched toward Eggman, helping him to pull him to his feet. "And mark my words that traitor will pay for it! At first I just hired you to spy on the military, but after I was betrayed you became my only chance of a rescue." He looked down toward his two robotic lackeys. "More bowing!" He stated with a strong lining of authority in his voice.

"Well, then...there's still the little matter of our fee." Vector rubbed his thumb and fore fingers together in the famous guesture. Eggman hesitated for a few moments.

"Well, sorry but at the moment I'm skint…but as soon as I conquer the world, I will pay you everything I owe." Vector lowered his arm, and stood almost to attention, fists beginning to tightly clench.

"Oh dear!" Becoe said in horror, backing up as he noticed Espio looking toward them with the same murderous rage Vector and Charmy were starting to accumulate.

"Some nerve promising what ain't got!" Vector snarled, cracking the knuckles on each hand, bearing his teeth.

"We've been had!" Espio exclaimed, assuming a ninja style fighting stance. Eggman and his robots began to back up toward the opposite wall as the Chaotix members began to approach them slowly. Highlighted in darkness by the storm.

"Now…let's not be hasty…we're all civilised people here!" Eggman stuttered, sweat running down the sides of his head.

"Oh dear…pain!" Decoe muttered, cowering behind his master as the shadows of Chaotix began to fall on them.

* * *

(In Chris's voice)

Doctor Eggman's not the real threat… then who is? Find out, next time on Sonic X, Metal Sonic's ascension


	10. Episode 52, part 1

**_(I do not own Sonic, Sonic X, Sonic Heroes or anything related.)_**

(I know it's a rather short chapter but it'll have to do for now…."

* * *

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO! GO! GO! GO! LET'S GO!

Episode 52: Metal Sonic's ascension

* * *

Sighing out load, Sonic lay back on the surface of the flag ship, his feet dangling over the side, the song of a couple of birds hanging in the air. He was so relieved that he'd actually won his fight against Metal Sonic, he wasn't too bothered by the water just a few feet away. Storm clouds gathering above, the occasional spit of rain falling down, despite their victory the whole place had an absolute ruination feel to it. Ships from the Egg fleet lay scattered across the bay, some with their tail ends sticking into the air, thick columns of smoke rising from their engines, which by now were clogged with water.

Already more and more boats belonging to the human military were arriving, some containing technicians, scientists and scavengers. A mere glimpse at Eggman's technology enabled them to create the robots now used for the military, without which they wouldn't have had a hope of fending off the Eggman Empire's recent attack on the city. The mere prospect of an entire fleet, especially one this large laden with new technology for them to steal was an invitation they couldn't ignore.

"We're here live on the remains of Doctor Eggman's flag ship, mere hours after the **_G_**uardian **_U_**nit for the **_N_**ations…G.U.N proclaimed victory in this monumental conflict. And as many expected, the world renowned hero Sonic the hedgehog is present amongst the defenders." Sonic opened an eye and looked up lazily toward a news team that was standing nearby. A helicopter sat a few feet, the blades on top still slowly turning. The reporter was Scarlet Garcia, the news reporter that had had the privilege to report on all the Eggman Empire conflicts from Eggman's first attack with his robot Missile Wrists to the ARK incident. "Sonic, a few words for our viewers please." She added, directing her mike toward him.

"We came, we saw, we tore Eggman's robots limb from limb." He replied lazily before making himself more comfortable.

* * *

Chris looked up as the Chopper descended toward the Flag ship. After a rather ungraceful landing, the X tornado lay on its side nearby, the water gently lapping around its feet. From now on, he told himself, he'd leave the flying to tails.

"Well it's just a few scraps." Sam stated, inspecting the X tornado, his own plane sitting not to far away. His hair was matted with sweet and engine grease and so was his red uniform. He placed his helmet on the wing and went in to have a closer look. "A good mechanic like me could have this fixed in no time." He stated.

"You're a mechanic?" Chris asked, looking back in surprise. Sam gained a superior smirk as he pushed himself under to get at the burnt out engine.

"Boy, you're looking at a one man pit crew."

The chopper landed with a soft bump and nearly instantly Chuck was off, loosing his balance as he leapt for a moment before straightening himself up. Tanaka quickly following

"Considering all this was conceived by a single scientist, this is a marvel of engineering work." He stated looking around, before he spotted Chris. "Oh there you are." He added, walking over as Cream and her Mother Vanilla climbed off after him. "Seems Sonic made good his little pledge to take Eggman down…"

"Looks like it." Chris agreed.

"Well, maybe I didn't manage to kick Eggman's butt." Said a voice; Chris and Chuck looked around to see Sonic and Amy came walking up to them. "But I sure managed to smash Metal back to the Stone Age."

"Hey Sonic." Chris began. "Who're your friends?" He added, looking over to the new crew behind them.

"They're sort of following us around…." Amy put in. "Sonic, I keep telling you, you're too famous for your own good."

"You're telling me…" Sonic began. "Have seen some of the most popular hair do's in town recently? Blue and spiky….half the girls down there look like that girl from Tenchi mayo or it muyo? You know, that Anime Cream likes to watch…"

"Cheese!" Cream nearly screamed, jumping into the conversation her frantic eyes wide. "Did you find him?" Sonic hesitated briefly before shaking his head.

"Sorry Cream, I was slightly preoccupied." Cream looked like she was about to cry, Suddenly ears shot up as a very familiar sound reached her, apparently something only she could hear since her mother didn't seem to have noticed anything.

"What is it Cream?" Amy finally asked, noticing her alert state. Cream didn't reply, instead she hesitated for a brief moment, before staring off toward the large tower like construction in the very centre of the flagship. Directly between them and it was a large purple shape, lumbering toward them.

"Chao CHAO!" Came the loud call as Big the cat came into view with a small chao and a Frog sitting on his head, each clinging to a large muscular ear as he walked towards them. The Chao didn't wait, it flew off the cat's head and straight into Cream, nearly knocking her over.

"CHEESE!" Cream yelled, her Chao finally back in her arms, who gave out an appreciative "chao chao chao chao chao chao!" Big waddled up, Froggy repositioning himself so he had the majority of room amongst the purple fur, pulling the overgrown mess around his small body.

"Oh so that was your chao." Big said to himself, sitting down next to the water and casting his line out into the water. Big, who had neither a sense of direction or purpose, had managed to find his way though sheer luck into the detention area were Eggman kept all the animals he was using as organic batteries for some of his robots. It was there he'd found his beloved amphibious pet and Cream's oldest Chao friend.

"We really can't thank you enough Mr. Big." Vanilla said with a small curtsy. Big just tilted his head to the side with his usual blank look and characteristic, not understanding the basic gesture. "uh…" He grunted, before he finally got the message.

"You're welcome." He said, before he went back to his fishing.

"Well that's one thing taken care of." Sonic added, dusting his hands. He hesitated for a moment, remembering something. "Erm, guys. There's something you should all know. It's something none of you will find easy to believe." Mostly everyone, apart from Sam and Big looked his way.

"What is it?" Chris asked. Sonic paused for a moment, wondering how to relate Shadow's sudden return from the dead without making it sound like he'd gone completely insane. He opened his mouth to start when someone called over to them.

"Well look who it is." Everyone turned to see a Crocodile, a Chameleon and a Bee emerging out a small trap door in the metal skin of the Flag ship, kicking aside a large collapsed sheet of metal to escape. Vector was first to emerged, carrying a bulging canvas bag over his shoulder. Espio and Charmee quickly following.

"Might have expected to see you here." Vector added, standing before them.

"Haven't seen you guys in a while." Sonic grinned, silently thankful for their intervention. The bag Vector had over his shoulder gave a loud grunting noise and twitched slightly. "Say, what's in the bag?" Vector swung the bag in front of himself, dropping it off on the ground. It groaned in protest.

"Well he's of no more use to us so I guess you guys can have him." Vector said simply, dumping the bag down in front of them and untying the top, revealing a beaten and infuriated Eggman.

"I demand I be treated with the dignity the Geneva Convention provides!" He said angrily, the ends of his moustache curling. The news crew hesitated only briefly before their camera was on the dictator, now in one of the less dignified positions imaginable.

"Mr. President!" Someone at the White house declared, turning up the volume on the large wide screen TV. The middle aged man, who was already busy with paper work piling onto his desk, gave the TV a side glance, before it had his full attention at once.

It was then that Eggman noticed the chaotic scene around him, his grand Egg fleet smashed to pieces, lying in ruin. "AHHHH!" He screamed, tearing his way out the bag, Decoe and Becoe falling out after him. "My precious Egg Fleet! All that work for nothing!" He clenched a fist and began shaking it up toward the sky. "This is you're fault Metal Sonic. I'll make you pay for this!"

"Metal Sonic?" Sonic repeated. "I thought he was working for you?" Eggman simply growled angrily.

"Far from it." He put in, stamping his foot. Sonic was felt speechless for a moment or two, before he attempted to answer back, again someone interrupted him.

"About time I found you." A voice shouted and a dark shape swung out of the darkness, materialising into the light. Shadow pushed past all the stunned people around and made his way directly to Eggman, a stern scowl on his face. The news team froze, catching sight of the black and red hedgehog.

"It's him…" Garcia managed to stutter. "The black hedgehog from ARK, I thought he was dead…Get a shot of him quickly!" Instantly the camera was on him and Shadow's face was broadcast on live news to the entire world. He was already famous enough thanks to the ARK incident and nearly everyone recognised him.

"OH CRAPPPP!" The President screamed; his mouth hung open at the television screen, his fists curled around clumps of his premature grey hair.

"I want a word with Eggman first." Shadow said angrily, pushing Chris aside, who was stunned into paralysis by Shadows sudden appearance.

"How…how…how…" The boy began

"That was what I was about to talk to you all about." Sonic replied, dragging Chris back and gesturing for everyone else to back off as well. Garcia and her crew didn't move, they kept perfectly still, their camera pointed forwards.

"Alright, time to answer a few questions!" Shadow snapped. Eggman just sat there, dumbfounded, before pushed himself up.

"What are you doing here!" He demanded angrily. "My drones aren't supposed to be active yet; you're supposed to be nowhere near completion!" Shadow looked stunned for a moment. "Oh never mind, it doesn't matter now, destroy these idiots!" Eggman added, swinging his arm out, gesturing toward the crowd behind him, who held their breath. Everyone was watching this moment on their television screens, mouths hung open in shock and horror.

"I'm not your puppet!" Shadow said simply. Everyone breathed out a sigh of relief expect for Eggman. "Now, you and I have unfinished business!" He leant forward and took hold of Eggman by the shoulders, his grip tightening every couple of seconds.

"This isn't possible! You should be obeying my commands, my programming system was perfect, and I designed it myself…unless…" The sides of his moustache dropped down and his face went white. "You're the original…." The side of Shadows mouth twitched slightly. "Shadow…now, wait just a moment…we can talk this out now…" Eggman began stammering, sweat running down the sides of his face. Shadow's eyes narrowed, fixing Eggman with an anger filled gaze. The scientist yelped and covered his face with his arms.

"Start talking fat boy."

* * *

"Why exactly didn't you tell us this before?" Amy asked when Sonic finished a brief account of his meeting with the black and Red Hedgehog at Eggman's base as Shadow began his integration of the fat scientist, looked on by the entire world thought a live news feed.

"I was slightly preoccupied." Sonic admitted, gesturing to the crashed fleet all around them.

"I don't get it." Sam began, whipping his hands free of oil with a rag he'd pulled out of his pocket. "I thought Shadow fell to his death from the ARK. How'd he survive?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Sonic replied. "And I'm sure that's what Shadow would like to know as well." He paused. The clouds were darkening and within moments, it began to lightly drizzle. "Say, have any of you guys seen Tails and Knuckles anywhere?"

"I thought they were with you?" Chris asked. Sonic shook his head.

"We kind of got separated when Metal Sonic showed up. They went on ahead to shut the Flag Ship down." He sighed. "I'd best go look for them, back in a sec." He was about to race off when he spotted a faint blot of red and orange on the horizon, gently blurred by the intensifying rain. Those blobs manifested quickly into faint outlines and then distant figures. Now Sonic could see perfectly the Echidna and his old two tailed fox friend. Tails looked half dead, leaning on the Echidna's shoulder. Without hesitating, the hedgehog raced off to their side. Amy and the others quickly following.

"What happened Knuckles?" Sonic demanded. The Red Echidna placed Tails down and now Sonic could see the nasty large bruise on the side of the foxes head. Tails himself looked like he may have a concussion, he was struggling just to keep his eyes open.

"We managed to take the ship down, but something hit us from behind and hard, when we came to the Master Emerald had disappeared from it's post and Tails here looked pretty bad." He paused. "I think he took the full brunt of the attack." Chuck looked over him, helping Tails up into a sitting position.

"Two cracked ribs," He said with a sigh, noticing a swelling on the left side of the fox's chest. "Amy, there's an emergency first aid kit in the chopper." Amy was about rise and Sonic disappeared and then re-appeared with a red plastic case. "Er...Thank you." Chuck added, taking the case and opening it, with drawing some bandages and a few disinfectant towels, which became more and more soggy as the rain become harder. "It's too cold and wet out here, let's move him into the chopper where it's relatively dry." Sonic gave Knuckles shoulder a brief glance.

"You ok?" He asked. Knuckles just gave him thumbs up.

"I'll be fine."

"I woe you one for bringing him back Knucklehead."

"Forget it pin Cushion."

Tails hissed as Chucked pressed against the painfully swollen area, wrapped a white bandage around his chest, his eyes widening.

"Easy there." Chuck told him, closing the door to the warm interior of the chopper. Cream and Cheese sat next to him in the other seat, Vanilla close by. Sonic, who had been suddenly shut out, watching through the window.

"I feel terrible." Tails admitted, lying back in the chair, ignoring the throbbing.

"Oh Tails." Sam began, opening the window next to the pilots seat. The fox looked his way. "Your X tornado got a bit danged up and the engine had a few bullet holes in it, but don't worry, I managed to fix it." Tails' eyes widened slightly and he looked over toward the plane, which was lying on it's side in a puddle of oil ridden water.

"And now I feel worse."

* * *

"Well what do we do now then?" Espio asked as Chaotix sat back and watched the rather entertaining spectacle which they had dubbed, the black hedgehog's revenge. Whatever plans Vector had now for riches, had gone down the plug hole. Just like Espio had imaged from the beginning, this entire fiasco had been a complete waste of time and he was sick of rubbing that in Vector's face.

"What can we do expect…" The Crocodile crossed over to Big and sat down next to him at the edge of the water. The bat gave him a momentary side glance. "Got any spare bait?"

* * *

(Flip Card 1: Cream and Cheese)


	11. Episode 52, part 2

* * *

Flip card 2: Metal Overlord 

* * *

Before the Government could allow salvage to begin, special forces were required to sweep the graveyard of ships to make sure it was safe for the carrier ships to move in. Rouge, Topaz and their team, along with several others from special branch were authorised to search the damaged flag ship from top to bottom.

Hidden in the maze of steal corridors, they had discovered a large iron door at least four foot thick. It had taken several attempts at cracking the code on the door lock, and one missile barrage from Omega to open it, but finally the Bat, assault android and the members of the human military now stood directly at the top of a large corridor light by a steady green glow from the overhead lights which were only kept on by the flag ships back up systems. All staring in awe at the sight that met them.

"What is all this?" Topaz asked in a hushed whisper. One either side of the corridor were row after row of pods. All of them were similar to the one Rouge had discovered Shadow inside. About twice the size of the average human, with a metallic lower half, encased in large metal pipes and plastic wires and a glass top half, the surface gently reflecting the light from the overhead lights. But what had them all frozen solid in amazement and horror was what lay inside, gently floating in a soft green liquid.

Each pod held a black and red hedgehog.

"This is impossible." Rouge managed to utter. But it wasn't, it was all right here in front of her. An army of Shadow's.

"Clones." One of the soldiers said, stating what was on everyone else's mind. Rouge suddenly went very cold inside.

This would make a lot of sense from Eggman's point of view. With an army of Ultimate life form copies, he could march right over the world meeting with little resistance. But…did this mean that Shadow…the one she had freed from the confines of Eggman's base…was one of these many copies? Had he been right all along? Had he been right to despair, had he been nothing more than a very good look-alike?

They carried along, finding row after row of pods, each one containing a Shadow, identical to their present one in everyway. All the wires on the floor and ceiling, all seemed to run along to a central computer housed somewhere toward the back of the chamber, the large screen poised above a arched computer panel. Omega lumbered up to it, studied the outlets for a moment and a small opening appeared on his left arm, two small wires snaking out of it. They writhed through the air before they arrived at two entry pointed directly in the top of the computer panel.

"Accessing memory core." Omega announced and the screen flipped itself on with a loud clicking. "Encrypted files, please wait…." The robot added and on the screen flashed several programs displaying progress charts and various other pieces of data all moving too fast for any of their party to see clearly. "Download complete, accessing main file entries." The screen changed to more charts, staying put long enough for Topaz to get a look in.

"According to these notes, Eggman extracted living tissue samples to create these things." Topaz stated, starting up at a chart showing the steady growth of taken cells in a stable environment.

Living Tissue? Rouge asked herself. The only way that was possible was if Eggman had the original Shadow, alive that is. He must have survived the fall from ARK and then picked up by Eggman's forces She had discovered their present Shadow separated from all these others. Could he really be the original, keep apart from identification purposes?

Whatever the reason, she found she had acquired a deep resentment for the man who had created all this. There was evidence here to support both possibilities. She waited until Omega was finished scanning the files for anything useful.

"If council is required." The robot said, detaching himself from the computer. "It would prove productive if these units were not allowed to be activated. I recommend immediate termination." Each word he said felt like poison inside her, eating way at her self esteem and pride. All this coupled with the fact that she could tell that if Shadow ever saw all this, then he would suffer over ten times more. It just wouldn't be fair to allow that.

"Destroy them all." Rouge said calmly, or at least as calmly as she could. Topaz gave Rouge a cautious side glance, regarding the seriousness in the bat's eyes.

"Right." She finally said. "Well you heard her, set the demolition charges!"

"Go find Shadow and keep him company." Rouge told Omega, who's large eyes swivelled to look directly at her, the lens directly on her. "And relay nothing of this."

"Affirmative." Omega said almost in a whisper, before disappearing out the way they had come, his heavy footsteps resonating throughout the corridors.

"Ok, we've set the charges." Rouge didn't even look back at the packs they'd placed on several pods and support structures, hoping to bring the entire chamber down. She simply followed them out of the door and stood with her back to the entire thing as Topaz pressed the detonation switch and the fire works began. It was painful more painful then she had imagined. It was almost as if she was killing Shadow over and over again with this one decision. A small tear ran down her cheek as the ground beneath her feet shook with the explosions. She'd just have to pray that Shadow didn't ask her if she found anything.

* * *

A fork of lighting lanced across the sky and it began to rain hard. The large pellets of water rippling against the metallic skin of the half submerged flagship. G.U.N agents and scientists and technicians were everywhere now, taking notes of what was damaged and what was ready to be taken away and patented. Salvage ships were dotted around, along with several of the battleships which were keeping it's guns active in case the flagship's cannons tried anything. Shadow watched them from a metal ledge just jutting out from the base of one of the larger cannons.

Some natural instinct was telling him not to trust them. The others were still questioning Eggman, trying to pull more information out of him before the Military police arrived to place him in custody.

Omega, who had strode in, had remained unnoticed by the rest of those around. The rain intensified again and by now it was tipping it down. The robot simply stood nearby and began pondering silently what to do now, reshuffling his large heavy feet so he was partially sheltered by the cannon from the rain. For one who fixated on revenge, he surprised himself by showing a remarkable amount of restraint in the presence of his creator. He briefly wondered if killing his betrayer should be his next course of action, but then deduced that perhaps it should be better for Eggman to held accountable for his crimes in a court of law. Either way, Omega's quest for revenge was nearing an end. And the question remained of…what purpose did he have after this?

"Gamma." He stated to himself as rain began to bounce off his metal shell, creating a small clinking sound. "What would you do in my place?" He looked up, noticing a couple of Mobian birds, categorized as Flickies in his database, fly overhead toward the Mystic ruins. "Codename, Omega. United specification number: E123. Mission complete." Suddenly he seemed to struggle against himself, almost as if he was fighting his very core network. "I…." He began. "Must continue my existence, honour the fallen E100 series."

Shadow had noticed that despite the presence of Eggman, the people with the camera had refused to move the lens from his position at all. He was still on international television, being broadcast to the entire world. He could just picture that panic it was creating, the return of Project Shadow, the black hedgehog that had nearly destroyed the entire world. Well let them panic if they wanted to. Certainly not his business what they did with their short lives.

Short lives? Was that another piece of his memory? Did he live longer than they did? No? Yes…he did. In fact, he couldn't die.

"What's up handsome?" Asked a voice. Shadow looked back over his shoulder to Rouge as she landed next to him, her wings folding behind her back.

"And just where have you been?" He asked without batting an eyelid. She smiled sweetly.

"Here and there, smashing up robots and the like." Shadow sighed through his teeth and looked away. "So you get anything interesting out of the fat guy?"

"Nothing that made sense." He growled angrily. "All I got out of him was deranged babbling about drones and something he called Original." Rouge held her breath for a moment. "This is maddening!" He said, thumping the cannon behind him, it's barrel falling off. "Who the hell does know who I am?"

Whatever made Rouge say what she said next, she would never know.

"No one can ever tell you who you are Shadow." She said. Shadow stared back at her without saying a word. "Only you can tell yourself that. Whatever past you had doesn't determine who you are either, only your present actions do." A fork of lightning lanced across the sky, illuminating Shadow's quills. He sighed as a small crossed his face.

"You could have said that at the beginning and saved me a whole lot of trouble." He said with a short laugh.

* * *

_(This bit is to make up for the famous SonAmy moment that the real Sonic X had on the final episode.)_

Since Chuck had now forbade Sonic's interfering presence until he was done with Tails, Sonic had taken up refuge from the rain in the shadow of the tower. Amy had joined him some time after that. At first they simply sat next to each other saying nothing. Then Amy gathered courage and began to edge closer.

Sonic hadn't disapproved of her presence yet so she took that as an encouraging sign and nuzzled up closer. She was so busy enjoying herself that she didn't notice the blush on Sonic's face. He hated to admit it, but there **was **something strangely attractive about her company. He continued to remain silent, simply watching the rain pour down around them. Amy shuddered and out of instinct, he put his arm around her. Of course he paused to think exactly why afterward. Normally the image of himself in this position willing would be portrayed in a strange dream brought on by cheese topping pizza before bed time. But this was no dream, Metal Sonic had given him the scars to prove that.

He looked down toward Amy, who was staring up at him with a faint smile on her lips.

"Sonic…" She said softly. Amy had achieved a goal she had been after for years without even trying. For the first time, the blue hedgehog was entranced by her eyes. His mind was failing to register with reality at all. What that remained was a white haze, and her. She must have done something, fed him mind altering drugs or whatever.

Whatever conspiracy theories he had had disappeared in the next moment when she laid her head on his chest, smiling to herself. "You really don't have to say anything." She said. Sonic blinked. Amy looked up at him, a fresh tearful glaze to her eyes. "I've been through it all myself."

"Amy I…" He began.

"You think you've gone mad, feeling that way about someone, feeling like you'd die if you left they're side." Both of them were silent after that, simply standing in each other's warmth. "I can't thank you enough for feeling that way about me." She added eventually with a sniffle, her hug tightening.

For the first time, Sonic's eyes were opened to the pink hedgehog. He saw her for all that she was now. And he realized just how stupid he had been. How could he have passed her affections off as heroes worship? There was obviously much more too it than that. Along with Tails, she had been his most loyal companion.

Shadow looked down, catching the scene before him momentarily, smiling in brief amusement.

Their faces were now only a few centimetres apart. Her breath hot on their cheeks.

"Amy, I'm sorry." Sonic managed to mouth. She just smiled at him.

"That's alright…" She replied.

They're lips were about to touch when a sudden green flash erupted from the pinnacle of the tower, bolts of light coursing around it before a new form solidified. Shadow blinked in confusion and stood up, straining his eyes through the green mist. Everyone could see it, from the skin of the flagship to the borders of station square.

"What the hell is that?" Espio asked, looking up toward the tower's apex. Eggman forced his way to his feet.

"It's Metal Sonic!" He snarled.

* * *

(Personal note: This next part works best if you listen to Rob Zombies: Super beast while you read it.)

With the Master Emerald as his platform, through his feet Metal Sonic began absorbing enormous amounts of power. His power cells recharged in an instant, but Metal Sonic didn't stop there, he kept feeding. The Master Emerald's power was almost addictive, once he sampled the tiniest amount of it, nothing was going to stop him from devouring it all.

"Power!" He laughed, his body outlined by a powerful green pulsated glow. "So much power, more, must have more!"

"Metal Sonic you treacherous fool, stop it!" Eggman cried up to his creation, his voice fragile on the winds that began encircling the tower. "You can't possibly hope to contain all that energy. It'll destroy you!" Metal Sonic let his head roll back and he laughed, the power contained with the master Emerald already coursing throughout his body. His entire wiser now pulsated with green light. His laughter echoed throughout the sky, calling forth thunder clouds within moments. Darkness reigning all around, only cast off the libidinous green light erupting from Metal Sonic. It was like an apocalypse, like the word was ending due to Metal Sonic's mere whim. The sea around them was beginning to froth and boil.

"Oh that can't be good." Chris stated.

"You're a small minded fool Eggman. I will claim dominance over this great power, and achieve the perfection you denied me!" With that, he drew on more of the emerald's power, a fierce green vortex engulfed the entire tower, blowing Eggman off his feet and directly into Big, knocking him over. Knuckles looked up in disbelief. This was his worst fear, and why he had assigned himself guardianship over the emerald. The power inside the master was immeasurable, if it fell into the wrong hands, the existence of the world was in peril. But now, he could do nothing but watch in horror, even the harsh winds wrapping around them like a cocoon were far too strong for him to fight. "Witness the birth of a god!" Metal Sonic declared, pointing his right arm upwards toward the sky, forcing his will over the power of the emerald, ordering it through his body to jump start his final transformation. A bolt of lighting erupted from his palm and leapt up toward the endless clouds, inspiring a swirling vortex around itself. Sonic looked up, instantly seeing all the energy building up in the sky, and came a sudden conclusion.

"RUN! He cried, turning about and grabbing a stunned Amy around the waist, pulling her along with him. Shadow didn't need any warning, he could see it just was well as Sonic. It took a few moments for a others to see it, and quickly followed, Eggman was flung over Big's shoulder. The chopper nearly tipped off at the sheer force, throwing Tails onto the floor.

Then, Metal Sonic recalled the now purified energy directly back into himself. The spiking bolt shot down, flowing directly into him with a violent explosion that ripped through the tower, shattering it's metallic structure into fragments. Flames, coupled with shards of flaming metal shot into the sly, bellowing pillars of smoke following closely behind. A barrier of wing radiated out from the explosion, knocking them all off their feet as they ran.

"As you can see viewers. Things have taken a turn for the worst here, we can't see what happening at the moment…." Garcia tried to yell into her mike, raising her voice as best she could above the scratching wind around them ."Despite personal danger, we will remain here to bring you the details live from the scene." The wind suddenly picked up at that point,

"My Beautiful fortress!" Eggman cried, slamming both fists down on the ground in despair. Sonic and Shadow managed to pull themselves to their feet, peering through the clouds of smoke and dust.

"What's going on?" Shadow asked. Suddenly, shattered pieces of metal that lay in various places came to life, wrenching himself into the in a flurry of debris, encircling the smouldering remains of the tower like a cyclone. All surrounded by white light.

"What the hell?" Vector stammered. Pieces began flying together, contacting, merging, becoming one, connecting with the whole bulk, increasing it's size. Each piece knowing exactly where they were required. All the time, Metal Sonic's laughter could be heard vibrating from somewhere deep within the cyclone.

This stunning spectacle was visible even from station square, where crowds of military soldiers and still terrified civilians stood and watched in awe. All attention was on this strange occurrence.

"Sonic." Eggman declared, struggling to stand up. "Listen to me, Metal Sonic's transformation is not complete yet. He must be stopped now before it's too late!"

"What?" The blue hedgehog asked.

"You know what's happening?" Knuckles demanded. Eggman nodded solemnly.

"Yes... In order to have the power fully at his disposal, Metal Sonic is fusing with the emerald." He swallowed hard. "They are quite literally becoming one and if he is not stopped now, it will be too late!"

Shadow didn't any more encouraging, his jets flew into life instantly as he began skating forward, holding his left hand back, cupping a chaos spear attack between his fingers. Once he was close enough, he spun around on heal and tossed the attack toward him.

"The black hedgehog has launched an attack toward this amazing spectacle." Garcia told the millions of viewers, looking toward the whole event herself, her gaze distracted from the camera. The chaos spear looked for a minute like it was about to make contact, but without warning a green force shield engulfed the towering cyclone, made from sparking strands of chaos energy. The attack simply was absorbed by it. The shield fizzled and disappeared.

Omega lumbered forward, his arms switching from hand to hand combat mode, to machine gun mode, the tips of his fingers folding over and remaining stubs linking together. The air was suddenly filled with bullets and the robot proceeded to launch most of it's ammunition toward the pinnacle. Metal Sonic just kept laughing from somewhere within the whole spectacle. Not one of them was making any damage.

"I vote we leave while we still have our lives!" Charmee suggested to Vector.

"All those in favour?" The crocodile asked weakly. All of Chaotix and most of the others put their hands up.

Suddenly it was over. A bellowing cloud of steam went up like a vial, cloaking whatever lay beyond from sight. Whatever had happened, it was very quiet.

"All is now quiet here." Garcia began, stepping out from he hiding place with her film crew. "We'll just have to wait till this smoke clears till we can what the defenders now face." Sonic was looking straight ahead, trying to catch some glimpse of his metallic rival. Something however, alerted him to a presence and his gaze shot upwards, to a towering shadow overlooking them all.

The smoke cleared and all was revealed.

* * *

"Ah crap!" Sonic cursed, taking a few steps back, over come by the sheer size of this beast.

This new creature was titanic, casting a shadow over them all, A forest of metallic spikes lancing out it's back. On It's right arm, instead of a hand there now lay an immense lobster like claw that was constantly snapping open and shut at regular intervals. All over it was covered in thick navy blue armour, each plate at least a good foot or two thick.

But what struck Sonic the most where the eyes. They were Metal Sonic's, one above the other resting in the middle of it's almost shark like face, it's mouth wide open, revealing three rows of metal teeth. it's neck was made up from a mess of pipes and wires, all curled around one around in twister of metal and wire, all coursing down into the large four foot thick metal plate spreading over it's chest and shoulders. It's lower body as a convulsing mass of metal, pulsating angrily, still attached to the main bulk of the ship, absorbing more of the mass. A second pair of arms began sprouting out the back of his midsection, first little more than two large stumps they kept growing, becoming longer, forming metal skin and articulated joints. A long tail, made up from segmented sections lanced out from behind it, the tip covered in the lances from destroyed egg pawns. Spreading over the back of it's head was a frill, the edge lined with large spikes.

Directly at it's centre, where it's heart should be was a curved dome made up of shaped strands of segmented metal, inside which was the Master Emerald, engulfed in wires, locked into place tightly by metal straps. It was beating wildly, exactly like a heart.

On the battleships, the sailors just stared at it. No ones had ever seen anything quite like this in their entire lives.

The creature reared it's head back and screamed, a beam of energy erupted from it's jaws casting a blinding flash of light out in every direction for miles. This destructive force leapt up into the air, hovered only before a moment, before separating into four equal parts and falling down toward the dozen Navy battleships surrounding the flag ship. Each one sank into one of those ships and instantly they were engulfed with flame, disappeared in a huge fire ball before sinking beneath the water. Leaving the sailors just enough time to jump off. The shock wave from the explosion tearing through the air, ten foot waves radiating away like ripples. Whatever Metal Sonic had become let out an ear piercing roar.

"Chris, I have a confession to make." Chuck began.

"Yeah, what's that?" His grandson asked back, his arms falling by his sides.

"…I am not longer wearing clean underwear."

* * *

In Chris' voice:

Metal Sonic, is he unstoppable? Seems so, but there's one small chance. If Sonic doesn't gather all the chaos emeralds real quick, then we all die. Can he succeed?

Find out next time on **Sonic X, **Enter, Metal Overlord. Don't miss it!


	12. Episode 53, part 1

(Short chapter again..)

(I do not own Sonic..etc. etc...)

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO! GO! GO! GO! LET'S GO!

* * *

Episode 53: Enter Metal Overlord

* * *

Fire fell from the skies like rain; bring great destruction with it. Navy battle ships exploded in a fantastic light show before sinking, a ruined spectacle of they're former glory. Watching this horrific spectacle, the carrier ships that had been approaching the fallen Egg Fleet quickly began to reverse to what they believed to be a safe distance.

Metal Sonic's new form reared itself up, screamed again as it tilted its entire body around to its left hand side, before vomiting a beam of energy directly out of it's jaws. Sonic watched in horror as this attack screamed through the air and bore directly into a large sky scrapper on the outskirts of Station Square. The building shuddered, the glass windows shattering into pieces before the whole structure crumbled to the ground in a bellowing cloud of dust. Crowds screamed and ran, pushed and pulling one another in a vain attempt to get away.

"You heard me!" The president yelled down the red phone. "I want the remaining G.U.N forces in the area to attack the creature!" He paused. "What do you mean… what creature? Turn on for TV you imbecile!"

"It's all over." Eggman said almost in a hushed whisper, the sides of his moustache dropping as he dropped to his knees. "He's too strong for any of us to stop now." The blue hedgehog remained transfixed on the city, mouth hung open in exclamation. His fists clenched and his eyes narrowed.

"I'm still going to try." Sonic snarled, clenching a fist and assuming a fighting stance.

"Don't be an idiot Sonic." Eggman snapped, latching onto the hedgehog's wrist before he could race off. "You wouldn't last a solid five minutes against him." One of the creature's eyes swivelled around to look directly at them, a large, staring red disc partially obscured in a black visor.

"Look at me now Eggman." It taunted them, starching up to it's full height. "If you had not been so selfish as to try and control my growth, this god of metal could have been in your arsenal." Eggman narrowed his eyes in rage. "Now…die." It reared its head back, snapping its jaws. Shadow swept forward, the makings of a Chaos spear already created between his fingers. Skating in closer, he launched the attack directly towards the creature's mouth. The yellow lighting bolts collided with its jaws, making the whole head vibrate wildly, the force of whatever energy attack he was preparing, dissipating back down his throat.

Shadow came in close, darting up the side of the tower toward the seething, churning mass that was feeding itself directly into Metal Sonic's body. It was hard for his jets to keep him close to the towers surface. It was constantly changing as more of its mass was being pulled upward to finish Metal Sonic's transformation. Metal Sonic's large head snivelled around, those parcel eyes staring down toward the black hedgehog, burning with malice. From nowhere it seemed, a large mechanical arm swung around and took out of him, tearing him away and flinging him through the air, Shadow regained his balance in mid fall and landed back on the ground. Metal Over reared his head back and spat the attack he had been preparing earlier at the black hedgehog instead. Shadow had just enough time to look up in dismay as a beam of purple energy collided into his chest, forcing him back before it finally pushed them over the edge of the flag ship and down towards the water, Shadow's scream silenced by a loud splash.

"Not even the ultimate life-form can stop me!" Metal Sonic laughed. "I truly have become the worlds most supreme being. No longer will I keep the name you gave me Eggman, I far more evolved than a simple copy of your worst enemy. The name is Metal Overlord now."

"Come on Amy." Chuck called to the pink hedgehog as the old man began hurrying as many people as he could inside the chopper. Sam had leapt into the cockpit, already the blades above the machine beginning to turn.

"I can stay and fight!" Amy yelled back, her hammer in hand. Sonic shot a glance back at her over his shoulder.

"Go Amy, now!" He called to her. Amy shook her head in stubborn defiance.

"Not a chance, I can't leave you to fight this thing alone."

Omega reverted to a mobile mode and rocketed forward, opening every hidden missal compartment on his body, the projectiles already coursing through the air toward the titanic Metal Overlord.

_"New target acquisition. Target in cross hairs, destroy Metal Sonic."_ Each one came into contact with the colossal metal beast but none seemed to do any damage. Metal Overlord simply looked down, grunted and lifted a large metallic paw and batted the assault machine away. Omega was thrown through the air before crashing through one of the Flag ships large cannons, disappearing a fire storm of twisted metal.

It was Rouges's turn. The bat flew through the air, trying to use speed to catch the giant off guard. Her attempt failed miserably. Metal Overlord's tail simply swung around and smashed directly down on her. She crashed to the floor, leaving a Rouge shaped imprint on the metal.

Knuckles raced over to her, pulling her up. She bared her teeth in pain as pulled her to relative safety, both her legs probably broken.

"Rouge, you ok?" He asked. She just gave him a week smile and pulled herself to a sitting position.

"Never better." She said, in a none to convincing voice, one arm wrapped around her side. Knuckles pulled her up and managed to place her inside the chopper, despite her argument that she could still fight.

"Ok, now it's my turn to take a whack at this guy!" The Echidna said with a smirk, racing forward. He was by now means as fast as some of the others, but he made up for it with supreme strength. Somehow he managed to reach the base of the tower Metal Overlord was growing out of. Punch after punch he directed into its base, hoping to knock it down completely. Again the metal beast deflected the attack with ease, calling forth a powerful force shield that knocked the Echidna away, off his feet and crashing into the side of the over turned X tornado. If anything, Rouge fared better against it than he had.

"Already boys, looks like we're up to bat now." Vector muttered to his team mates, swallowing hard before hand, his knees knocking.

"Do we have to?" Charmee asked, cowering behind Espio. Each one them was terrified, more terrified than they'd ever been in they're entire lives. What kept them standing there, ready to fight was a highly underrated thing called comradeship. Despite their common disagreements, The Chaotix had been brothers in arms for a long time. Together they'd been through many hardships and that would be how they would stand against this one, together.

Espio tore several shuriken from a concealed pocket and sped forward, closely followed by Vector and reluctant Charmee.

"Don't you fools get it yet?!" Metal Overlord asked, looking down on the charging trio, raising its lobster claw into the air, the small barrel of some of weapon emerging from its centre. "I AM INVICIBLE!"

"GET DOWN!" Sonic yelled, dragging Amy and himself to the floor as Metal Overlord's claw descended and a river of fire coursed down toward them. Eggman screamed like a little girl and ducked behind the chopper, holding his head in his arms as the blazing heat shot past him, his two loyal robots at his side.

* * *

As Metal Overlords sadistic laugh rolled around the thundering sky, a large force of strike planes sourced over the burning city toward the bay and the demonic machine that was burning everything in its path. There were at least three dozen of them, all flying in a triangle formation. Each one with two miles under each wing.

"This foxtrot five, target locked on, preparing to fire sidewinder missiles." The leader of the triangle formation said through a microphone.

"Don't miss." The President told him from back at the White house.

Shadow pulled himself back over the edge of the ship, shaking the water out of his matted fur. There was some profoundly embarrassing about being beaten like that, not that Shadow minded loosing the occasional bout' but this one was fairly humiliating. He looked up toward the Metal Overlord, its entire body surrounded by towering flames.

"Damn it." Sonic cursed, looking up, his arm still around Amy. "How are we supposed to beat something that powerful?"

"There may be one hope." Eggman said, hesitating only for a moment as he peered out from behind the chopper. "The seven Chaos Emeralds, perhaps, with those we may have a fighting chance."

"Too bad we don't have them." Amy shot back.

A loud, constant roaring sound began to penetrate and the air and suddenly they all caught sight of the large attack force heading directly toward them. Metal Overlord lifted its head up to get a better view. It's face set in a sneer.

"If their greatest fighters can't defeat me, then what hope do they have?" The air force swooped overhead, before coming back around, lower this time so the entire force could have a clear line of fire.

They didn't even get the opportunity to pressed the little red button at the top of their joy sticks. Metal Overlord held its large claw up, spread it out wide and clenched it tightly again, pillars of green light illuminating away from it. Bathing everything around in an intense flare; beams of light shooting outwards.

"Chaos Control!" He screamed and instantly, time and space were ripped apart. Leaving the here and now stuck in a limbo without movement. Everything around was like it was inside a freeze frame. The air force was stuck in mid air, like a large collection of toy planes. Sonic and his friends were left staring upward in bleak horror, rotted to the spot. Everything was deadly quiet.

Immune from the effect, Metal Overlord arched his back, his spine shaking. Several of the large spikes on its back detached themselves from their positions and rocketed toward the planes, tearing through them like scissors through paper. Once all of them were reduced to hovering piles of scrap metal, Metal Overlord recalled those spikes and released the effect Chaos control had on reality. Sound came rushing back and along with it, movement returned to the world.

"What the heck?" Shadow asked himself, staring up as scraps of burning metal and parachuting pilots suddenly replaced the fighter planes he had seen moments before. He hadn't even seen them get hit by anything, one minute they were there, and the next they weren't.

"He stopped time?" Eggman exclaimed in confusion and then realization suddenly came to him. "Chaos control…. Sonic, listen to me. You must retrieve the Chaos emeralds, Without them, we're as good as dead."

"Well how the hell am I supposed to find them on short notice?" The blue hedgehog demanded. Eggman looked down for a moment, muttering something about how he was going to live to regret this. "You should be able to track them, with you have a source of their unique type of energy with you."

"Like a homing device?" Chuck asked, who was leaning out of the chopper. Eggman looked back and nodded. Chucked narrowed his eyes. "Take off now, head to the city." He told Sam and stepped off onto the ground. "I can do the most good here…not go!" He shot back before anyone could question him. Sam gave him a puzzled look, before smiling a weak smile and a thumbs up. He turned his attention back to the controls of the chopper and slowly it began to rise into the air. Tail looked down toward his old friend, who was still standing defiantly against Metal Overlord with a wide smile.

"This may be front page news." Scarlet Garcia said outload, her camera man still filming footage from the air. "But I don't get paid enough for this kind of thing…wait…you didn't pick that up on the mike did you?" Metal Overlord looked up toward the fleeing helicopter.

"Who gave you permission to leave?" He demanded, opening his jaws to fire another blast toward it. Before he could even muster the energy, a ripple of machine gun fire was sent directly into his mouth as Omega ploughed out of the wreckage, cannons blazing.

"Sonic' the crystal ring I gave you earlier." Sonic blinked and looked down at his wrist and the round green band. "I need that back for a moment." Sonic nodded and detached it from his arm, handing it over. "I constructed this while I had a Chaos emerald in my lab. It uses chaos energy, the same kind as in the emeralds." Eggman smacked his fist into his open palm.

"Perfect, this is exactly thing we need."

"There's a Chaos emerald inside the X tornado isn't there?" Knuckles asked, gesturing over toward the plane with was still lying, relatively unnoticed by everyone else around.

"We'll be needing that as well." Chuck announced, turning the crystal ring over in his hands. "The ring's devoid of energy; we'll need it to power the ring up." Sonic darted over to the X tornado and quickly withdrew the red emerald inside the machine, tossing it over toward Chuck who caught it in his free hand.

"Need anything else?" Knuckles asked.

"Just keep him off us for a moment or two." Eggman replied, already reaching his pockets and withdrawing components for machines that he always carried around. Shadow snapped his neck to the side as he cracked his knuckles.

"If you insist."

_"Roger."_ Omega added. Shadow and the robot looked at each other, nodded briefly, before engaging Metal Overlord, Knuckles quickly following. Chaotix also managed to pick themselves up, before joining the fray. Chuck and Eggman worked quickly, their fingers frantically assembling a small device around the ring, making it look more like a bracelet.

Espio's flying kick slammed directly into the chest plate of the Meta Overlord, causing him to start swaying. Omega came around again, two missiles catching the titan in the back, knocking him forward. Vector slashed out with his tail and fists, making large dents in the armour plating as Espio cast two shuriken that made contact with the parallel eyes, blinding him, making his roar in pain and frustration.

"There!" Eggman declared, sliding the last piece in place. Sonic snatched it from his hand with asking and slapping it onto his wrist again. It was the same of crystal ring, but with a small box and screen attached to the side. The ring itself was pulsating with a soft green light.

"That screen will guide you to sources of Chaos energy." Chuck told him, sliding the Chaos emerald into his pocket and turning the screen on. The display showed a large X directly in the middle. "That shows were the chaos emerald I have is, use this as a beacon to return once you find them all. The device is a little make shift so you'll have to be careful with it."

Sonic nodded and said, "Right. So once we get all the emeralds, I turn Super and smash all this Metal Madness?"

"That's the basic idea." Decoe announced.

Their conversation was suddenly cut short when Metal Overlord roared loudly as Omega crash landed near by, followed by a very angry looking Shadow. The tian roared again, and again and again, folding his arms around his body, his tail wrapping around the tower below. Sonic stared back in confusion. Was this some soft of new attack? He got his answer soon. A tight fitting shield, outline Metal Overlord's engulfed it, swallowing the machine giant whole before a gigantic sheet of white steal dragged itself around the tower, hiding the monster that had once been Metal Sonic from view. Threads like those of a spider's web lanced out, connecting this new pod to the ground. Once finished, this strange new thing looked more like a cocoon, the king caterpillars go into before emerging as butterflies. Everything became still as everyone simply stared, wandering to themselves what was going to happen next.

"What the heck is this?" Vector asked as he and his team backed off.

"Sonic, you'd better get going." Eggman said to him. "I don't like a look of this. GO, get the Emeralds and then come back here…go!" Sonic blinked and gave one last look up toward the towering white…thing cocoon. Was Metal Sonic completing his transformation inside that thing? Would he come out of there even more powerful then he already was?

He didn't even want to picture anything strong than what they'd just faced.

"Back in a flash." He put in, before all that remained of his presence was a faint after image that disappeared within a moment. As Sonic raced of the side of the flag ship, leaping from submerged ship to submerged ship, toward the closest of one of the six remaining X's on his radar screen, he began to wonder if he'd make it back in time.

* * *

Flip Card 1: Dr. Eggman


	13. Episode 53, part 2

* * *

(Quick review response)

I suppose Metal Sonic being created now dose clash a bit with the official storyline, however, Sonic X is sort of an AU universe. Besides, speaking from the viewpoint of Sonic X, if Metal Sonic had been created before Sonic Heroes then why didn't Eggman use him before? As for Emerl, I confess that the start of the fic was written before the finale of the Battle Adaptation so I have to classify it as a spin off type thing.)

* * *

Flip Card 2: Nazo

Two down, four to go. With two emeralds already placed inside a large canvas bag he'd picked up on the way, Sonic raced toward the third X on the make shift device Eggman and Chuck had quickly thrown together to track down the Chaos emeralds. Finding the first two had been extremely difficult, and he knew he hadn't too much time to spare. Why was it that every time the Emeralds scattered, they always ended up in those hard to reach places such as the peeks of mountains or the bottom of lakes.

He forced himself to remember that he hadn't time to think about that. Metal Overlord could emerge from that pod any minute now and if they were to have any chance of tdefeating him, the chaos emeralds were absolutely essential. His legs became a blur as he poured on the speed, shattering the sound barrier, knocking any tree around him over, leaving any noise behind and entering the mute void one must travel through when they go that fast. Running at this speed required a surprising amount of concentration, and as distracted as he was, Sonic couldn't help thinking that he could somehow go faster.

"Don't think blue boy, just run." He told himself and involuntarily put on another burst of speed.

* * *

"So what now?" Shadow asked, staring up at the towering pod. Loud squelching noises were emanating from inside and Vector had conquered up the courage to edge toward it to get a better look. Using this opportunity, rescue ships had sailed in to rescue the pilots that had bailed out of their planes during a severely unsuccessful air attack. Everything around was in chaos, the strange combination of fire and water strangely and poetically apt. Despite the roar from military choppers as they began lowering in ground troops to the Flag Ships massive surface, the soft laugh of the flames and the noise from inside the pod itself, everything was very quiet.

Eggman gritted his teeth, staring at this grotesque thing in loathing, before his arms collapsed to his side and he fell to his knees, the thick frustrating look of defeat on his face.

"We can't do anything now, none of us." Everyone looked his way. " Once Metal Sonic's transformation is complete, he'll emerge from that thing like a butterfly from a chrysalis, ten times stronger than before." He looked up weekly. "Go ahead, attack it, you won't so much as make a dent." Shadow looked up at it himself, studying it in detail. Vein like lumps were pulsating over its surface, each one it seemed lead right down to the web of metal strands that encircled the tower. "Metal Sonic was designed to be the ultimate assassin robot, to that extent I have him the ability to absorb accumulated battle data like AI prototype Emerl, learn and improve on it,"

"But all that power…" Chuck began with his eyes narrowing. "Did you design him to be able to control it so well?" Eggman shock his head.

"No, and that's the reason Metal Sonic turned on me in the first place I'm lead to believe. Shortly after I created him, I discovered that not only would his strategically thinking improved when he absorbed data, but so would his strength and other physical attributes. So I decided to keep a close eye on his evolution to make sure that he did not grow too powerful were it would be come necessary to deactivate him. Metal Sonic is seemed discovered his hidden potential as well and when he discovered a sought to suppress it, saw no other option but to turn on me." He smacked the deck of the flagship with his open palm. "Now he's evolved to a level far beyond anything I could have imagined."

"All the more reason to shut him down now." Knuckles commented, charging forward with a fist drawn back before smashing it against the metallic web. There was a loud clanking sound and Knuckles scrunched his face up in pain, tears forming at the edge of his eyes. "EEEOOOOOOOOWW!" He yelled, withdrawing his now limp hand. As for his intended target, the shiny metallic surface was completely without flaws.

"See?" Eggman added with a strangely humored smile. "Our only hope is that Sonic finds the Chaos emeralds and returns in time to make a difference." He slapped his hand to his forehead. "I'm relying on the rodent again, how humiliating."

"How much time do we have?" Chuck asked.

"Who knows? A year, a month, an hour, a minute? As long as Metal Sonic needs to complete his transformation." Eggman replied, not even aware that more of the military's soldier's had begun arriving on the scene, setting up a perimeter within moments. Chuck looked up as the arrived.

"This is now a closed off era, you're to leave at once. An assault is about to be mounted within a few minutes." One of them announced as the others, with several Big Foot walkers and Laser Hunter units took up positions directly in front of them, preparing a line of fire. Apparently the President had ordered military intervention. Eggman simply chuckled.

"Don't waste your ammunition. Attacking it right now would prove pointless." The solider smacked Eggman on the back hard.

"You don't give the orders around here Terrorist." Another who was not with the other group up front reached around into his pack and produced a pair of hand cuffs.

"Hands off!" Decoe and Becoe exclaimed, rising very quickly to protect their master.

Everything was brought to a very suddenly halt when the gigantic pod gave off a loud churning should and the top half began to crack, compromising lines spreading down it's length. Everyone remained very quiet and simply watched. The pod flexed itself again, whatever was inside trying to force it's way out. Parts of the web began to strain, the strange metallic substance groaning reluctantly, a strange and terrifying moaning spreading across bay to the already scared civilians in the city.

"That certainly doesn't sound good." Amy stated, backing off slightly.

* * *

Five emeralds already attained, all Sonic had to do now was acquire the sixth and the location was already marked on his locator. The emeralds inside his bag sparking wildly, coming into closed proximity to each other, but he couldn't worry about that. His legs were beginning to pulsate in pain, but he kept going anyway. Just one more, then head back. It was just he was so….very…tired. He shook his head violently, snapping himself back from the brick between wake and asleep.

"Keep it together!" He told himself, pouring on more speed, the world simply a white void around him, black outlines the only things telling him that he was entering a large city in China. The locator blipped loudly, telling him that he was nearly on top of the emerald. Placing on foot horizontally in front of the other, he came screeching to a halt, sound and color flooding back in an instant. The thing he noticed at once was that the streets were empty, people were terrified, hiding behind locked doors. Sonic really didn't blame them, a large, black, ominous looking cloud was towering out from the west, bolts of lightning crackling around it's bulk. The loud, angry thundering roars hanging in the air. This was enough to make even Knuckles nervous.

"Hey!" Someone called. Sonic looked around to see a man approach him cautiously, casting glances up to the towering cloud. He was in his middle ages with short black hair and eyes, dressed in very plain pants and trousers. He appeared to be slightly overweight.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked as the man approached him.

"Name's Hawk…and we don't have time to talk right now…just take this." The man reached into his pocket and withdrew a large, fist sized purple jewel. Sonic took a few steps back in surprise. "Heard that you were looking for them." Hawk added, handing the blue hedgehog the emerald. Sonic's face lit up.

"Alright! This is the last one."

"You had best get going." Hawk told him. "I was watching the news coverage and the last I looked, things didn't seem to look too good." The smile on Sonic's face disappeared, replaced by an open mouth.

"Right, I'm off….and thanks." He added, calling over his shoulder, already his legs in a complete blur, a blue darting blue already coursing through the streets, a sonic boom shaking the windows.

* * *

The cocoon cracked, before shards of it went flying as a pair of gigantic wings stretched out to their full width. Vector held his arms up in front of himself to shield his eyes as pieces of debris began flying. A ear-piercing roar shook the ground as a bulking shape shattered the remains of the pod, several pairs of gigantic arms tearing the rest of it to pieces.

"Sonic's too late!" Eggman exclaimed, staring up in horror as a horrible and titanic shape propelled itself into the air on metallic, yet bird like wings, each created and feather fitted and molded with artistic precision and as black as the darkest night. Metal Overlord's newest form was both majestic and terrifying. Engulfed in a thick cloud of smoke, this metallic bird soured into the sky. Those same parallel red blazing eyes staring down at them, only their intensity blared a thousand times brighter than before. Its tail end had enlarged, more spikes lancing out of it's tail. It had kept its two sets of arms, large curving talons now on the end of each finger. Directly in its chest, it's master emerald heart pulsated with a bright green light.

Sonic stared in horror from the shore as Metal Overlord took flight, encased in a blanket of cloud, rearing a silhouette that could only be it's head back and vomited several beams of energy that shot off in nearly ever direction, burning everything that came near them. Chaos reigned all around, buildings and ships crumbled into flames and ashes. The water of the sea boiled and churned, sinks, both Eggman Empire and G.U.N sinking before any of the sailors had a chance to escape. The storm around intensified ten fold, gale force winds wrapping themselves around everything it would, tearing, shredding and biting

"Holy crap!" Sonic exclaimed, shielding his eyes. A hideous, evil laughter somehow managed to tear through all this chaos. He was too late!

"Get those people out of there!" The president screamed at down the phone. "I want a complete evacuation of Station Square, I don't care if it's never been done before, just do it!"

The Chaotix retreated back to the main group, some instinct guiding them for safety in number. The metal bird was in full flight now, once it reached a good height, made off toward the city with a burst of unthinkable speed.

* * *

"Better late than never." Shadow said with a grin, his fur still matted with seawater as Sonic raced up beside him, breathing hard. Chaos was everywhere, everything around falling into the sea. The flagship beginning to groan and strain as it began to sink. Sonic didn't reply, he simply tore his bag off his shoulder and tossed it to the floor, tearing it open.

"I got them all." He said, pausing for breath. Eggman's face lit up.

"Now we have a fighting chance." Metal Overlord flew over the city as people began flooding into the streets, running for their lives. Sneering down at them, the metallic dragon-bird threw its head back and another beam of destructive energy down towards them. Fire tearing through the buildings, smoke bellowing up into the sky. A sky scrapper that towered up out of the ground got in Metal Overlords way and it simply tore through it, the tip of it's black wings shredding through the building without even flinching. It's top half swayed for a moment before crashing down to the streets below.

This was his true calling, now Metal Overlord was sure of it. He was not simply a robot in the Eggman Empire's arsenal, he was the herald of the age of machines. When these disgusting organic beings would be exterminated and glorious mechanoids walked the earth in their place. He took great pleasure in destroying as much of the city as he could, leaving much of it in ruins, reducing whatever lay in his path to rubble.

More fighter planes from the military came screaming across the sky, two missiles already coursing through the air toward him. Metal Overlord simply batted them down toward the streets with it's large tail, before screaming at the planes. The sonic scream rippled through the air, shattering the metal frames, engulfing the planes in fire before they went spiraling toward the ground.

The entire city began to burn. Buildings collapsing into rubble and smoke, crowds feeling in terror as the colossal metal bird swooped down toward them.

* * *

The seven emeralds reunited, each glowed brightly, as if happy to be with its brothers. A soft, almost musical notation seemed to buzz in the air as a bright flare, the starting point of Chaos Control blared outward, casting bright pillars of light into the surrounding darkness. Sonic closed his eyes, his mind already connected to their energy. Every time he had turned Super before, he had had to concentrate, merge his own energy with theirs. Something however, was different this time. A voice, repeating the same statement over and over again began to ring in his ears. Shadow could hear it too, and stood transfixed by it with Sonic.

Suddenly, the white blur disappeared and two hedgehogs found themselves standing in front of a stone shrine. Everything around was bursting with life and vitality. Grey, snow covered mountains stood in the distance and rolling green hills in the fore ground. The sound of birds chirping and a babbling brook nearby gently entertained their eyes. The Shrine itself was made of gray stone, and set into several layers, each one with a ring of water around it, gently being drained away by two sets of aqueducts. The top of the shrine had an overhanging arched roof held up by four stone pillars, a soft green light imitating from some point within. The same musical hum still was buzzing around. Everything seemed so natural, so peaceful than neither of them actually questioned what they were doing here.

Suddenly, everything was engulfed in flames and the giant pulsating form of Perfect Chaos reared it's transparent head up and roared. In the sky above the giant form of the ARK could be seen plummeting toward them, pulled along by the Biolizard, still fused with the point of the Eclipse Cannon. Another form manifested in this chaos, a figure made completely of green flames with blaring white eyes. Then, all was well again and they were left back at the shrine again, as if nothing had happened.

Standing at the foot of a step of steps that lead up to the top of the shrine was an Echidna girl, with blue eyes and bright orange fur, dressed in Aztec looking clothes. Sonic and Shadow remained motionless as she began to approach them. Finally she stood before them and Shadow could see her in better detail. She wore a golden tiara on her head, each side disappearing behind dreadlocks, each one with a white band around them. Around her buzzed several bright blue Chao, all singing a soft melody that seemed to match the already present musical note that hung in the air.

"We've been waiting for you." She said with a smile, extending her hands toward them.

A silhouette appeared by her side, a faint outline that began to solidify and Shadow found himself staring at the transplant outline of a human girl, probably no older than 16. Bright golden hair and sea blue eyes. The familiar face transfixed shadow. The girl sidestepped and her barley visible form slid into the physical one so it occupied that same space as that of the Echidna female's, she outstretched her hands as well, then they both spoke together.

"The two become one."

Sonic and Shadow only hesitated briefly, before each reaching out and placing a hand each on hers.

* * *

The Chaos Control flare turned from white to Emerald green and without warning, both Sonic and Shadow were pulled off their feet and sucked directly into it, swallowed up completely.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed. Metal Overlord hesitated from his attack and looked back, then was suddenly blinded as the small pinnacle of light expanded into a flare so bright the darkness around was engulfed. The city, the bay, the Mystic ruins, everything was swallowed up by an expanding ball of green light. A loud groaning becoming lighter in pitch began resonating in the air. Just like the Chaos Control that brought them to Earth in the first place, the light kept expanding and expanding.

"What on earth?" Eggman asked, staring at this new hedgehog, standing directly in the centre of a bright ring formed by the emeralds, bathing in their combined light. Pillars of sunlight lancing down from the thick storm clouds above, highlighting him like spotlights. Fur completely white and softly glowing. Like Shadow, these streamlined and fused quills at an angel, all pointing upwards apart from the one directly in the centre. The two fused quills on his back twice were long, standing out against the shoulders. Each spike was outlined by a streaks, very much like shadow but the streaks were erratic and not perfectly straight. The eyes were a green like Sonic's, but far lighter in color, almost made indistinguishable by the soft white glow.

Metal Overlord hovered above, staring down at this new source of incredible light in amazement. Tails, Chris and the others still in the chopper were watching from out of the window, the light from this new hedgehog running through the streets of Station Square.

"Sonic?" Amy began, approaching slowly. "Is that you?" The white hedgehog turned to give her a very Sonic type grin.

"Nope." He replied, his voice was almost warped and distorted, like two people were talking at once.

"Then, are you Shadow?" Rouge asked, supporting herself on Knuckles' shoulder. The hedgehog shook his head.

"No, not him either." He spread his arms, blazing white flames dancing from his shoulder all the way down to his fingertips. A ball of this concentrated force gathered between the fingers on his left hand, light bolts that seemed to put fiery heat into the air lanced around it. Metal Overlord flapped its wings and hovered high in the sky, retreating to a safe distance.

"Call me Nazo." He replied, before bring his arm sharply across his front, his fingers arching as this spectacular attack ripped through the air, veiled in the purest light.

* * *

(In Chris' voice)

Nazo? Who the heck is he? Nevermind, just go fight Metal Overlord and win. It's coming down to the wire and could be a photo finish. Who will win the battle of the Titans? Find out Next time on Sonic X, the final clash. Don't miss it!


	14. Episode 54 part 1

**

* * *

(This is a short chapter, compared to the others anyway. But the final fight has only just begun.)

Last time on Sonic X:

**

The Chaos Control flare turned from white to Emerald green and without warning, both Sonic and Shadow were pulled off their feet and sucked directly into it, swallowed up completely.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed. Metal Overlord hesitated from his attack and looked back, then was suddenly blinded as the small pinnacle of light expanded into a flare so bright the darkness around was engulfed. The city, the bay, the Mystic ruins, everything was swallowed up by an expanding ball of green light. A loud groaning becoming lighter in pitch began resonating in the air. Just like the Chaos Control that brought them to Earth in the first place, the light kept expanding and expanding.

"What on earth?" Eggman asked, staring at this new hedgehog, standing directly in the centre of a bright ring formed by the emeralds, bathing in their combined light. Pillars of sunlight lancing down from the thick storm clouds above, highlighting him like spotlights. Fur completely white and softly glowing. Like Shadow, these streamlined and fused quills at an angel, all pointing upwards apart from the one directly in the centre. The two fused quills on his back twice were long, standing out against the shoulders. Each spike was outlined by a streak, very much like shadow but the streaks were erratic and not perfectly straight. The eyes were a green like Sonic's, but far lighter in colour, almost made indistinguishable by the soft white glow.

Metal Overlord hovered above, staring down at this new source of incredible light in amazement. Tails, Chris and the others still in the chopper were watching from out of the window, the light from this new hedgehog running through the streets of Station Square.

"Sonic?" Amy began, approaching slowly. "Is that you?" The white hedgehog turned to give her a very Sonic type grin.

"Nope." He replied, his voice was almost warped and distorted, like two people were talking at once.

"Then, are you Shadow?" Rouge asked, supporting herself on Knuckles' shoulder. The hedgehog shook his head.

"No, not him either." He spread his arms, blazing white flames dancing from his shoulder all the way down to his fingertips. A ball of this concentrated force gathered between the fingers on his left hand, light bolts that seemed to put fiery heat into the air lanced around it. Metal Overlord flapped its wings and hovered high in the sky, retreating to a safe distance.

"Call me Nazo." He replied, before bring his arm sharply across his front, his fingers arching as this spectacular attack ripped through the air, veiled in the purest light.

* * *

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO! GO! GO! GO! LET'S GO!

Episode 54: Final clash

The air pulsated with Metal Overlord's scream as it swerved through the air to avoid the attack which seemed to be made completely out of pure light.

"Who dares?" He demanded staring down at the blaring white hedgehog on the deck of the flag ship below. Nazo was a sight to behold. He seemed to be comprised of the purest light, white flames dancing long his arms and around his shoulders. Always on his face was the Sonic type smirk. The seven Chaos emeralds lay on the floor around him, little more than ordinary stones now, all their power drained into this new being. Without hesitation, he bend his legs and leapt into the air, propelling himself to an impossible height without moments, coming level with Metal Overlord itself. The metallic bird had just enough time to look startled before the white hedgehog landed a kick directly into its snout. It wasn't visually impressive, but it managed to knock the gigantic head to the side with a loud clank.

"I'd say the playing fields pretty even now wouldn't you?" He asked, his grin intensifying. Like Super Sonic, he seemed to be able to remain stationary in the air as long as the white aurora surrounded his body. Metal Overlord shot back with a scream before attempting to clamp it's jaws down onto him. Nazo simply flew to the side, then again as one of the large mechanical arms swung itself around, attempting to sway him away.

From the flag ship, it appeared like Metal Overlord was fighting with a white firefly.

"Alright you have some skill." The metal bird admitted, his wings forcing itself off to a safe distance "But face it, your no match for me. Your power comes from the Chaos Emeralds, mine from their master. Is there really any contest?" Nazo narrowed one eye.

"We'll see won't we?" Metal Overlord forced some air out of it's snout in an angry huff. Nazo flew forward, holding both arms back, gathering his energy in his fists. Up went an energy shield around Metal as he saw this attack coming. However it dissipated as soon as the white hedgehog swung a fist forward, shattering into pieces like glass in a fantastic light show that rivalled the sun in brilliance.

Their clashes in the sky shook the ground, distant rumbles like artillery fire beginning to resonate in the air. Light and darkness collided, shockwaves spreading out for miles. The thunder and light, mixing with thick bursts of rain began to throw themselves toward the ground.

"I can't see, what's going on? Eggman asked, forced to shield his eyes from the bursts of light.

A clash of this proportion was done in a whole different way to convention fighting. Physical blows were rarely exchanged, or perhaps missed completely. Both combatants were far too fast for a melee of punches of kicks to work. Instead, the energy they both possessed was used as deadly weapons. The one constant colfict were the conflicted colossal energies, one good one most certainly evil, coming into close proximity with each other, sparking off one another. It was this scenario that triggered the tremendous storm. Metal Overlord had been observing his opponent throughout this struggle and noted that Nazo replied on his speed to gain a slight advantage. Well, he knew how to neutralise that.

"Chaos Control!" He screamed, arching his back as his Master Emerald heart began pulsating the unstable waves from his body, forcing time and space apart gain. Freeze framing the entire world. All three rows of his teeth grinning, he turned to fire an attack, only to be meet by a sight that stopped him in his tracks.

"What?" Metal Overlord exclaimed, watching Nazo move with him as he flew, as if Chaos control hadn't affected him at all. "That's impossible! How can you possibly be immune from Chaos Control?" The white hedgehog didn't reply, he simply grinned evilly before racing forward, smashing another kick directly into its face. Metal responded with another barrage of small energy missiles, all of which Nazo either dodged of reflected. Seeing that this prolonged Chaos control was wasting his energy, Metal was forced to release his hold and Nazo and himself were forced to fight in reality again. A strange, rippling effect passing through the world for a moment, although no one but themselves noticed it.

"You're going to have to try something else Metal…" Nazo commented, racing along side the metal dragon, before landing an attack directly onto the back of it's neck. Metal Overlord fell a few feet, howling in pain, before flipping back up, it's wings flapping a few times. "Chaos control uses Chaos energy to work, and yours truly is probably the greatest culmination of Chaos energy around." Metal snarled.

"You… irritating little…"

* * *

The chopper touched down on the nearest roof of the city that was still intact or not on fire after Metal Overlord's attack. Everyone quickly piled out and over to the side to watch as the small point of light duelled with the colossal metal bird. Sam stayed in the cockpit, his mouth hung open as the fight between the two super entities continued. The sheer force with which they fought was near inspiring, almost like two gods duelling.

"Just what is that?" Chris asked, staring in amazement. Tails joined him by his side, his ribs still bandaged. A gust of wind made by the fight sourced of their heads, blowing fur and hair back.

"There's only one thing it can be." The two tailed fox said with a smile, shielding his eyes from the sting of the wind. Cream and Vanilla stared out as well, Cheese hovering around them.

"Mr. Sonic?"

"Chao?"

"But can he keep that up though?" Vanilla asked as Scarlet Garcia began yelling at her camera man to capture this _"Scoop of the century_" on film before she did him serious injury. None of them replied to that. Chris looked like he was about to say something, before a violent flash of light and strong gust of wing intrupted him.

* * *

Nazo flew forward, attempting another energy attack, only to be halted in his advance by a slap from Metal's spiked tail. The spikes would have squired him, but it was his omnipresent shield of energy that projected him from fatal injury. Stunned for a moment, Metal Overlord took the opportunity to rear it's head back and then fire an attack from out's mouth that manifesting as a purple beam of chaos energy. It rippling through the air like a bolt of lightning but as silent as a snake in the grass, it was only when it impacted the white hedgehog that it made any noise. An ear splitting boom followed by eruption of green light. Nazo screamed in pain and was thrown from the air, spiralling as he fell. After a few feet, he gritted his teeth silencing the scream and opening his eyes. He righted himself in mid air and flew toward metallic bird with new fury.

The fight recommenced as the world seemed to be coming to an end as they did so. Metal Overlord however had seen the potential Nazo had, and we was not prepared to suffer a rival. He held little back again this new opponent and with every successful attack landed, Nazo's glow began to decrease, his fur changing gently from white to grey and his flames beginning to diminish.

Despite his fierce determination, the power of the Master Emerald greatly exceeded that of the Chaos emeralds, just like Metal Overlord had claimed. But he didn't believe he couldn't win. There had to be a way. There had to!

"Come on Sonic, I know you can do this!" Amy yelled up at him as Nazo crossed his arms over his chest, forming a shield between himself and the deadly attack that coursed from metal. To everyone's surprise, his glow increased slightly.

"Go, do it!" Knuckles joined in. Again the glow began to steadily grow.

"I know you're my enemy hedgehog, but trash that traitorous machine!" Eggman screamed up as his two robots gave each other a curious glance. Nazo began to feel strength fill him, but it wasn't his strength, of that he was certain. It was coming from far below him. He risked a glance toward the deck of the flag ship.

"Come on Shadow, Sonic. I know the two of you can do better than this." Rouge yelled up. "You both saved the Earth before, you can do it again." His flames began to intensify and the glow surrounding his body began to expand. From the streets of Station square came a slow steady chant. People, G.U.N officers and the grounded pilots from the Air force had lined the harbour, all yelling the same name over and over again.

"Sonic, Sonic, Sonic." Came drifted over the sea toward him. Nazo managed a smile. Technically he wasn't Sonic, only half. His Shadow half wasn't really pleased that he wasn't being paid any recognition but the effect was still the same. His closed his eyes gently as all that strength began to pour into his being. His flames grew in size and intensity ten fold for a moment, then Metal Overlords attack was reflected away from it, back towards it's castor. Metal sank low in the air to avoid it, before re-ascending.

"Your game is beginning to annoy me!" He snarled, before noticing the steady white glow as it began to grow.

"Open wide!" Nazo yelled, throwing his arm forward and something like a powerful lens flare appeared between his fingers for a short moment before a beam shot forward, catching Metal Overlord off guard. He grunted loudly as it forward him from the air and down toward the sea. The giant form screamed in outrage before it impacted the water, disappearing with a loud splash. Water was thrown up into the air in a spout before it began falling again with the legitimate rain.

Everyone rushed to the side of the Flag Ship, staring out toward the ocean. Metal Overlord did not resurface.

"Is…it over?" Vector asked, looking around for some kind of explanation.

"He did it!" Eggman declared in glee, his mouth wide in a grin. Decore and Becoe doing a strange little dance that looked like an Irish Jig. Omega lumbered closer to the edge of the Flag ship, his large red eyes staring out toward the churning waters that gently began to settle. Everything was quiet, very quiet. He swerved his head to look directly up toward Nazo. The white hedgehog was just hovering there, staring down toward the water, his face set in a serious expression. Like he was waiting.

"Victory not yet achieved." The robot announced, turning back toward the sea. There was a brief moment of silence before the water began to forth and boil, gentle waves growing into violent clashes. A loud groaning sound began to slowly build in their ears as, becoming near painful. A pair of red eyes began glowing from somewhere deep in the gloom.

* * *

Flip Card 1: Tikal


	15. Episode 54, part 2

* * *

(I do not own Sonic…etc)

* * *

Flip Card 2: Maria

* * *

Nazo gritted his teeth as a distant laughter, as low as the rumble of thunder began to rise in the air. The sea far below him slowly beginning to churn, before the large bulk of Metal Overlord hauled itself out of the water, highlighted by a green flare, a giant spout of green smoke lancing out of it's chest, occasionally dimming and escalating with a loud thumping noise. The colossal metallic bird was only a few feet out of the water, before it's feathered wings lanced out either side of it's body, casting great threads of water across the surface. It's shark like head reared up and bellowed, a beam of green light erupting from behind it's teeth and screaming toward the white hedgehog. Nazo grunted his frustration before back flipping in the air, the edges of his blaring white quills caught in it's path. Using the momentary distraction, Metal Overlord's wings carried it up into the sky and level with the white hedgehog. To Nazo's horror, the colossal machine didn't seem to have a single scratch on him. He'd hit him with the most powerful attack he could muster, and nothing?! His thoughts were interrupted when Metal Overlord's tail swung around, nearly impaling him on the large spikes.

Nazo tried to contour attack with a flying kick. Metal Overlord simply dodged around it, before launching his jaws forward, ready to snap shut on him. Nazo narrowly missed, so much so he caught a sight of his reflection in the metal teeth. He tried to attack again and again, but found Metal Overlord easily either deflected or dodged them.

This repetitive scenario was brought to an abrupt end when one of Metal Overlord's four limbs came souring around, smashing him from underneath, throwing him upwards. Another came down from above, connecting with his back with a loud smash. The remaining 2 limbs came from the side together, catching the white hedgehog in a painful clap. Metal Overlord's giant face sneered as he pulled his hands apart and let the white hedgehog fall.

Nazo's eyes were completely blank as he spiralled down toward the flagship, his flames slowly dying out, his fur changing from a brilliant white to an ugly grey. To the intense horror of everyone watching, he didn't right himself in time to prevent a crash directly onto the deck of the flag ship, landing in a tangled heap before Eggman and the other onlookers.

From above, Metal Overlord watched. Sadistic pleasure in his eyes as Nazo did not get up again. His giant wings beat a few times, before angling themselves upwards, allowing the metallic creature a slow decent.

"See Eggman?" Metal asked as he landed on the deck, two of the large limbs propping himself up, one of the parallel eyes turning directly toward the fat scientist. "I've finally achieved the one thing you could never achieve." It's attention turned back to the life form grey form lying motionless before it, looking as fragile and delicate as a rag doll. Slowly, Metal Overlord raised it's claw, the flame thrower barrel inside it lancing out slightly, a small flame dancing on the tip. "The destruction of Sonic the Hedgehog." Before he could lower his claw to attack, Every missile, bullet and other forms of ammunition Omega had inside his being and weaponry rocketed forward, crashing into Metal's limb, making him recoil with a loud roar. The two large machine guns in Omega's arms rattled loudly, complaining that they were out of ammunition, their barrels smoking. Metal's tail swung around, batting the battle machine away. Hardly ariel mobile, Omega was thrown through the air and over the side of the Flag ship. Had he not grabbed hold of the edge with his large metal talons, he would have fallen into the ocean with little to no hope of rescue.

"Omega, hold on!" Rouge cried, pushing Knuckles helping arm away and racing toward the battle machine, forcing herself to forget her own injuries. Before she could come anywhere close to the edge, Of Metal Overlord's large hands came down sharply, blocking her way.

"I never realized toying with your enemies could be this fun." He stated, before flicking her away with one finger, straight back into Knuckles, knocking the two of them over.

Omega had managed to pull himself up slightly, so now he had a better grip with both arms, stared up at the towering metallic dragon-bird above him. One of his red optic eyes had been smashed in, parts of the glass falling away, revealing the optic devices behind it. There was suddenly a white flare from somewhere behind him and Metal Overlord hesitated, before turning to look back. The limp form of Nazo had regained it's fire, only now it's were a thousand times more intense than before. His skin rippled for the grey was replaced by pure white. The light was too much for Metal Overlord to bear, he shrieked in discomfort and hide his eyes. The flames spouted towards, becoming a pillar of white light that stretched up high into the sky. Slowly at first, Nazo's body began to twitch. Then he blinked, opening his eyes. Finally he got to his knees and then to his feet. Once standing his tilted his neck to the side, hearing a loud snap.

"Thanks for the distraction Omega, I needed the recovery time." Metal Overlord snarled, spreading its wings and souring into the sky, out of reach of the pure beams of light now radiating from Nazo's body. Within a second, the white hedgehog was up in the sky again, hovering in front of the colossal titan, his fire burning brightly. "Ready to go if you are metal boy." Metal Overlord's face was set in an angry frown, teeth bared and eyes narrowed into silts. This three fists and one lobster like claw shaking in rage. Why was it that every time he based his hedgehog down, he just got back up again? Why wouldn't he just stay dead? He closed both vertical eyes for a moment, before snapping them both open. Now they were filled with a strange madness.

"You don't know when your beat do you?" He asked, if it were possible for a sadistic sneer to cross his metal face, it would have done. Nazo simply grinned. "You've struggled longer than I expected, but your miraculous or be it, annoying revival has changed nothing."

"You talk too much." Nazo put in with a yawn. "Are we gonna do this thing or not?"

* * *

Their clashes took them into the storm clouds above, all that became visible of the fight from below were the occasional flashes of light from somewhere beyond the vial of clouds and the loud rumbling that couldn't possibly be thunder. Nazo's power had never been so concentrated, so focused. As the clouds soured around him, he kept the red eyes of Metal Overlord in sight. Their pulsating glow was an instant give away to his location. Energy attacks were exchanged, some missing, some cancelling each other out and others hitting home. Metal Ovelord searched as one hit him directly on the chest, making his squeak and quiver involuntarily. Nazo noticed this, finally a weakness. He would never have admitted this out load, but he was beginning to think that his opponent didn't have any weakness to exploit. Now he had a plan, only problem was that he needed to be in close proximity to the Metal Overlord for it to work. Which, as he expected, was not easy. In fact, it was near downright impossible. Metal Overlord was too alert, too attentive to Nazo's movements to allow such a manoeuvre.

What Nazo really needed was a distraction, he though to himself, racing in and landed a flying kick directly in Metal's face, forcing the machine backwards, roaring in anger. Something to hold his attention for the few seconds needed.

Metal's tail swung around and Nazo swung upward to avoid it, taking hold on the tip with his left hand. Using the momentum from the swing, he landed himself right side up and started grinding down it toward the wings and multiple spikes on the back. Metal roared and tried whipping his tail to shake him off, but Nazo managed to keep his balance and before Metal could stop him, he was amongst the spikes. Take hold of one in each hand, he directed currents of chaos energy away from his body like rippled of electricity. Metal screamed, withering back and forth as visible bolts of white lighting coursed down his body. Small explosions began happening here and there on the metallic birds body.

"Get off me!" He screamed, diving down towards the ocean. Nazo just kept inflicting more and more damage, his eyes closed in concentration. Metal flipped himself over so that he wad flying upside down once he was level with the water, dipping his spikes into it, trying desperately to shake the white hedgehog off. Nazo managed to look up in time to see the floor of water come rushing at him and let go, flying of before Metal noticed that he wasn't there anymore.

"Missed me!" He shouted down. Metal turned his head around, snarling in rage. A few beats of his wings and Metal soured upward. It was then that Nazo saw an opening, something he could use, but it would require spilt second timing to pull off. If what he'd seen was correct, then Metal Overlord couldn't stand the light. Nazo simply hovered there, his arms by his side, his flames simply dancing around him.

Metal Overlord actually hesitated for a moment. Why was he just floating there? His rage got the better of him at that point, and without thinking he soured at him, mouth slowly beginning to open, a low rumbling in his throat heralding the arrival of another energy attack.

"Just a little closer." Nazo whispered to himself with his eyes still closed. The low rumbling turned into a loud roar as a purple glow began to pulsate out of Metal Overlord's mouth. Suddenly, the white hedgehogs eyes snapped open as it was as if the sun itself had suddenly arrived. The light was so blinding Metal Overlord shrieked in pain and recoiled like a cat whose tail had been trodden on. He was withering around in the air, completely blinded.

Nazo could see that there was never going to be an opportunity this good. Still strode in light, Nazo soured forward, dodging around the giant limbs that began writhing and twisting pain and furstration. Metal Ovelord closed on of it's eyes and stared around, now apparently immune to the light's blinding effects. Suddenly, he became aware of a presence and stared down, face transfixed in horror as he saw the white hedgehog hovering directly in front of his chest now, arms crossed in front of himself, the fire surrounding his body beginning to intensify ten fold.

"This is where it ends." Nazo said plainly, closing his eyes as bolts of white lightning began dancing wildly around his body, more and more joining them with each passing second. Metal Overlord hesitated and tried to pull back, but by now it was already too late. Nazo's eyes napped wide open and he spread his limbs out wide with a loud scream, simultaneously the aura surrounding his body rippled like water on the surface of a pond before rocketing outward. A solid, expanding ball of intense light that engulfed the Metallic-bird within a single moment. Eggman looked up as this ball of light began expanding and expanding, its luminous form getting closer and closer, engulfing everything in it's path.

"Chaos Control!" He had had time to scream before the light swallowed the flagship and all those onboard. It kept growing, washing over the ruined Station Square like a wave. The Mystic ruins on the other side of the bay was engulfed next, followed by the desert to the south. The entire planet earth began, fore a few moments only, a giant ball of light, it's luminous rays lancing out into the darkest regions of space. The same, soft melody they had all heard before still hanging in air.

Then, with a giant explosion, the light came to an end and reality was restored. The shock wave of the explosion knocked the flag ship sideways a good couple of meters, forcing everyone off their feet. Chuck, who had been shielding his eyes with his arms was the first too look up. The sky was clear above them. The storm, the rain, the thunder and lighting was all gone. The only remains of the titanic battle were a few whisps of smoke in the air.

Nazo was thrown from the air, spiralling down toward the ocean again. Every ounce of his strength was gone, his skin completely grey now. There was a quick flare of light, and the grey hedgehog disappeared, replaced by two separates ones. Both fell lifelessly into the sea with a quiet splash.

"LOOK!" Knuckles cried, pointing up toward the sky. Still floating in the sky was Metal Overlord all four arms and wings spread wide. But he was far different. Every part of his body was scorched black and crumbling, large pieces of his form falling from his being. His mouth hung open in astonishment for a single moment, before his jaw fell off. His arms and wings became black ash and began to disintegrate. His red eyes dimmed, becoming purely black, before the giant form tilted forward and he started falling. As he fell, more and more parts of him broke off so what eventually make contact with the ocean was only a fraction of his original size.

"He did it!" Vector yahooed, high fiving Charmee. From the city on the shore, loud happy, deliriously happy cries began to drift over. Even those members of G.U.N, still in their pilot able robots and tanks were cheering.

* * *

On the beach before Station Square, where the golden sand lay on a stretch of coast for miles, where large pine trees stood attentive on the edge near the road, two limp forms washed themselves up on the golden sand. Everyone had gathered at the docks to watch the battle so no one noticed them lying there, the waves gently lapping at their legs. The gentle sun on their backs.

"You ok?" Sonic asked, his head face down in the sand, his quills so water logged they didn't stand up anymore. Shadow, who was in a similar state gave a quiet sound that Sonic guessed meant, yes.

The blue hedgehog managed to find some strength in his arms and he pulled himself to his knees, spitting to rid his mouth of the foul salty taste. He shook himself down, ridding his fur of the sand, splattering Shadow unintentionally. Sonic flipped himself over so he was lying on his back. It was obvious that he was physically depleted and exhausted. But through his eyes, one could see a boundless energy lying untapped inside.

Shadow managed to roll over, showing his front was covered with sand and a large piece of seaweed resting on his shoulder. They both looked out toward the Flag ship, clearly viable from the shoreline, a graveyard of Egg fleet ships behind it. Already choppers from the rescue services and the military were beginning to arrive. The ships which had backed off when Metal Overlord first reared its head had finally plucked up the courage to venture forth.

"You think a Chaos control warp in his face was such a good idea really?" Shadow asked, pushing himself up to a sitting position. Sonic blinked at him, before looking back up at the sky as a soft white cloud passed overhead.

"Probably not, but you know as well as I do it probably the only thing we had capable to breaking through its armour." He leaned back, putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes with a wide smile. "Oh well, it worked anyway." Just he finished his statement, his ear twitched as he managed to hear a metallic scrapping coming from nearby. He opened his eyes and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Standing over him, Red eyes glowing was Metal Sonic, although he had reverted back to his orginal form, the one Sonic fought him first as. The white stripes on his quills were gone, as his large bracers had shrunk back down to their original size. His metallic skin was cracked and compromised and half of his right ear had been broken off. The glass over the left half of his visor was cracked as well. One of his large arms was limp and missing it's lower half.

"Holy shit!" Sonic exclaimed, despite his fatigue on his feet in a second, leaping back a few space. Shadow glanced that way, then did the same, his hands held out in front of himself, despite the fact he hadn't the necessary to launch an attack. The robotic hedgehog didn't move. He simply stared at them, before swaying like a tree in a breeze and toppling forward, landing with a loud thump on the sand. He remained motionless there, face down in the sand.

Sonic and Shadow cast each other a nervous glance for a moment, before the black and red Hedgehog edged his way forward cautiously. He picked up a loose piece of drift wood and prodded the android. There was no response.

"Maybe he's…run out of power or something?" Sonic asked, stepping closer. Both jumped back however when Metal Sonic's good arm twitched several times, then helped to push the machine up. There was a second crack in his visor now and the glow from his eyes was gone, in fact it was hard to see the red discs at all now.

"I…don't understand." He stated, managing to push himself onto his back, showing that his legs were no longer capable of supporting his weight. "I had the Master Emerald, the most powerful source of Chaos Energy in existence. I am the ultimate machine, perfect in nearly every detail. How could I loose to you?" Sonic hesitated only for a moment, before approaching. He knelt down beside the robotic hedgehog, staring down toward its broken face with a stern glare.

"Perfect? I don't think so Metal." He said simply. "No ones perfect, not even a machine." Metal Sonic looked up, puzzlement in his eyes. "Think about it Metal, you've been telling us that you've risen past the requirements Eggman had for you. Yet, all you've done to prove it is try to destroy everything, the very job Eggman built you for." Metal, for once, actually understood now. He'd wanted so badly to be more than he was, to improve himself. Sonic was right, although he was loathed to admit it, the blue hedgehog had shown him that he was still little more than a Eggman Empire robot. Hardly the being of greatest he kept telling himself he was. Shame burned in him, how could be have been so stupid? The answer to his desire for evolution had been there in front of him all along, and he'd been foolish enough to fall back into the old style way of thinking that evolution came only with the increase of power. "Well, ta for now Metal." Sonic added, standing up. "Perhaps I'll see you later huh? It'd been fun to find you again, just for kicks if nothing else." Metal stared up at him, the red tint to his eyes slowly beginning to diminish. Before it went out all together, Metal Sonic managed to mutter…

"Challenge accepted." His visor went completely black and his head went limp, falling back into the sand. Sonic sighed, almost with an angry tint to it as he stood there staring down at Metal's body. The tide came in and water began to

"So what now?" Shadow asked, joining his side. Sonic looked up for a moment.

"I'm going to have Tails and Chuck repair him." Shadow stared at him with wide eyes.

"You're not serious!" Sonic grinned, showing his teeth. Shadow groaned and slapped his forehead. "Right, of course you are."

"So what about you Shadow?" Sonic asked, butting in. "What's next for you then?" Shadow paused. That was actually a good question. His quest for answers had been fruitless, not to mention time consuming. His heart simply wasn't passionate about it anymore, and besides, what Rouge had said had really given him something to think about.

"I dunno really." He said, kicking a large clump of sand into the sea. He looked back over his shoulder toward the ocean. "Looks like your friends are coming." Sonic blinked and looked back himself. A large boat was makings it's way from the flag ship to the shore, he could already see Amy waving and yelling from here. He waved back at her. "Well, see you around blue hedgehog." Shadow added, beginning to walk away. Sonic turned back.

"Where you going?" He asked in surprise, to his amazement, Shadow actually looked back with a smile.

"Here and there, I need to be alone for a while, to think. Oh and tell Rouge…" He hesitated, trying to find the right worlds. "Tell her I'll look in on her sometime." Without a nothing word, he began skating away, reaching the top of the beach and onto the hot road, skating away into the distance. Sonic was tempted to run after him for a moment, but then thought better off it, putting his hands on his hips.

"Yeah, I'll see you around Shadow the Hedgehog."

* * *

"Well." Vector began, leaning back into his chair. The boat they had all managed to pile onto was a small ferry and bopped up and down in the water. Knuckles who didn't have any sea legs to speak off, was leaning over the side with a green complexion. Rouge was sitting near him, making jokes at his expense. Omega, who was still in a state of disrepair was being looked over by Chuck. Amy was up front, waving to someone on the shore. "I guess that's it for this case, boys." The Chaotix were at the back of the boat, Espio sitting on the edge letting his long tail trail in the water.

"Guess so." The chameleon said with a sigh, flipping a Shuriken like a coin between his forefinger and thumb, a bored expression on his face. Charmee, who was sitting on Vector's shoulder, looked up suddenly remembering something.

"There's just one thing." He began. Vector made a quizzical noise, opening the eye nearest to him. "What about our money?" Vector and Espio paused, then cast each other a stunned glance. A moment later, there was a loud booming sound. Everyone looked back toward the Flagship as a hidden door on it's side opened up and a small escape rocket with the Eggman Empire's symbol on the side lanced out.

Eggman, finally managing to squeeze his round bulk inside a seat belt, was sitting in the cockpit with Decoe and Becoe in the back. He flipped the final two switches and prepared for take off. into The defeat of the Egg fleet wasn't a total loss. He would win out eventually, and then the world would be his. But for the time being at least, the chance of profit was gone, and therefore, so was he. The rocket remained stationary for a moment before rocketing forward into the sky, becoming a dot on the horizon within a moment.

"WHY THAT SLIMEBALL!!!!!" Vector screamed, all his teeth bared; thumping the side of the boat with both fists. "THAT OBESE, SHORTCHANGING, FOUL SMELLING LOWLIFE SON OF A…" Espio simply stared, wide eyed for a moment, before he started chuckling. Then that chuckle turned into a fully fledged laugh as he fell back into his seat as his comrade began ranting and raving.

* * *

(In Chris' voice)

What a battle! So everything back to normal now? Hardly! Amy and Sonic still have some unfinished business. Find out what happens, Next time on Sonic X, Epilogue. Don't miss it!


	16. Episode 55, part 1

(I do not own Sonic..etc)

* * *

(Sonic Drive, English Lyrics.)  
  
S, O, N, I, C GO!   
S, O, N, I, C GO!  
Go, Go, Go, Go Let's go!

Since yesterday's rule,  
today is simply loose,  
The best goal is breaking them,

Unless I can keep on running,  
There is no other meaning for me,  
That's some kind of punk philosophy,

Bio rhythm is 2 by rhythm,  
The scenery is in a countless instant's line,  
The wind surrounds me,

Inside Outside Attack,  
Everything surpasses all at once,  
Who is one too, what is one too,  
What we can do before we can't,

Inside Outside GO! SONIC!  
Everything's adding up Yes! SONIC!  
"Look out" and "Have A Nice" look alike,  
Well, the difference is as thin as paper,  
Take off and throw away that boredom, right now start running!

S, O, N, I, C GO!   
S, O, N, I, C GO!   
Go, Go, Go, Go Let's go!

* * *

**Last time on Sonic X:**

"This is where it ends." Nazo said plainly, closing his eyes as bolts of white lightning began dancing wildly around his body, more and more joining them with each passing second. Metal Overlord hesitated and tried to pull back, but by now it was already too late. Nazo's eyes napped wide open and he spread his limbs out wide with a loud scream, simultaneously the aura surrounding his body rippled like water on the surface of a pond before rocketing outward. A solid, expanding ball of intense light that engulfed the Metallic-bird within a single moment. Eggman looked up as this ball of light began expanding and expanding, its luminous form getting closer and closer, engulfing everything in it's path.

"Chaos Control!" He had had time to scream before the light swallowed the flagship and all those onboard. It kept growing, washing over the ruined Station Square like a wave. The Mystic ruins on the other side of the bay was engulfed next, followed by the desert to the south. The entire planet earth began, fore a few moments only, a giant ball of light, it's luminous rays lancing out into the darkest regions of space. The same, soft melody they had all heard before still hanging in air.

Then, with a giant explosion, the light came to an end and reality was restored. The shock wave of the explosion knocked the flag ship sideways a good couple of meters, forcing everyone off their feet. Chuck, who had been shielding his eyes with his arms was the first too look up. The sky was clear above them. The storm, the rain, the thunder and lighting was all gone. The only remains of the titanic battle were a few whisps of smoke in the air.

* * *

"I…don't understand." He stated, managing to push himself onto his back, showing that his legs were no longer capable of supporting his weight. "I had the Master Emerald, the most powerful source of Chaos Energy in existence. I am the ultimate machine, perfect in nearly every detail. How could I loose to you?" Sonic hesitated only for a moment, before approaching. He knelt down beside the robotic hedgehog, staring down toward its broken face with a stern glare.

"Perfect? I don't think so Metal." He said simply. "No ones perfect, not even a machine." Metal Sonic looked up, puzzlement in his eyes. "Think about it Metal, you've been telling us that you've risen past the requirements Eggman had for you. Yet, all you've done to prove it is try to destroy everything, the very job Eggman built you for." Metal, for once, actually understood now. He'd wanted so badly to be more than he was, to improve himself. Sonic was right, although he was loathed to admit it, the blue hedgehog had shown him that he was still little more than a Eggman Empire robot. Hardly the being of greatest he kept telling himself he was. Shame burned in him, how could be have been so stupid? The answer to his desire for evolution had been there in front of him all along, and he'd been foolish enough to fall back into the old style way of thinking that evolution came only with the increase of power. "Well, ta for now Metal." Sonic added, standing up. "Perhaps I'll see you later huh? It'd been fun to find you again, just for kicks if nothing else." Metal stared up at him, the red tint to his eyes slowly beginning to diminish. Before it went out all together, Metal Sonic managed to mutter…

"Challenge accepted." His visor went completely black and his head went limp, falling back into the sand.

* * *

**Episode 55: Epilogue**

A single month has passed since the defeat of the Metal Overlord. During this short period of time, many changes had been brought about. G.U.N had salvaged the remains of the tattered Egg fleet and were presently in the middle of a project using that Technology, known to the public simply as Project Giant wing. The Eggman Empire, and indeed Eggman himself has not been heard from. He and his personal robot army has remained on Final Egg, well out of the reach the military but it was public opinion that it was only a matter of time before he struck again.

It was now a day before the start of the Summer vacation, each day the hot sun would beat down on the ground below and air conditioners would be turned up full blast. Despite the events a month ago and the state of disrepair Station Square was in again, School had resumed and Chris was on now of his last year before he left for High school. A cousin had told him a lot about it and although he had little option but to go, the tales of woe heading his way were not filling him with confidence.

As he sat at his desk for the last time with Danny, Helen and Francis around him, not paying attention to what Stuart was writing on the board, he began to think about what his Grandfather had told him earlier.

"The multiple uses of Chaos control have merged Sonic's world Mobius, and ours into one whole planet." Chuck had announced, once few land masses inhabited with Mobians had been discovered in the Pacific after Nazo had been forced to resort to a Chaos Control warp to defeat Metal Overlord. "It's quite extraordinary really, a complete union of two worlds, an unheard of scientific event…"

"As much as I love techo babble." Sonic put in, butting him off. "Can you get to the point?" Chuck hesitated and cleared his throat, leaning back in his chair with an embrassed look on his face.

"Yes…quite. What that means in simple terms is that you finally made it home, and yet you didn't." Sonic and Tails gave each other a quizzical look, shrugging. "You see, instead of going back to your home, you brought your home here." Barley grasping the concept, Sonic just nodded with a dumb smile.

"How long will it stay like this?" Amy asked. Chuck looked up at the ceiling, raising his eyebrows.

"Haven't the foggiest." He replied, scratching the back of his head. "Something like this has never happened before, for all I know the change could be permanent, or it could unravel tomorrow morning. We'll just have to wait and see." The clock ticked up and it began to near three o clock. Stuart, finishing his lesson for the day, let the students play the videos and DVD's they brought from home for the remainder of the afternoon while he stuck his nose into a large book.

"Earth to Chris!" Helen said, waving a hand in front of his face. The boy blinked, snapping back into reality.

"Err…yeah." He asked with a stiff smile. Helen, the blonde Disabled girl gave him cute smile that made him feel a little more at ease.

"We're having a barbeque next Tuesday, want to come?" She asked with a blush. It was a well known fact that Helen has a powerful crush on Chris, although he himself had either chosen to ignore it or it had by past him entirely. Danny gave Francis a nudge with his elbow with a goofy smile. Francis simply giggled. Chris gave him a strange look.

"Sure, I'll be there." He replied. Helen didn't manage a reply; she was blush too hard and feeling giddy inside. Stuart paused from his reading and looked up toward the cloak above him, noting there was only ten to five minutes until the final bell rung and school was out for the summer. None of the students had noticed however, they were all too busy watching their movies or talking to one another. He sighed and placed his book back inside his bag, standing up.

"Class, attention please." He sharp sharply, his voice rising above the DVD they were playing. Everyone looked his way and someone pressed pause on the remote, the screen freeze framing. "Since you're the leaving class, It's my responsibly to bid you all goodbye. I'll be leaving this school this year myself." Everyone chattered amongst themselves for a moment before quiet resumed. "Ok then, so everyone pack their things away and get ready for a great summer." He added with a smile, smacking his palms together. Chris sat still while the other got busy around him, still in thought. He began to think exactly how ordinary his life had been before that night when he found Sonic drowning in his pool. Since then he'd been the middle of adventures involving mechanical armies, ancient water demons, space colonies, flying fleets of destruction and a god of metal. Hardly the think one would expect a boy his age to get caught up in. And something told him more was on the way.

* * *

With the Master Emerald finally back in it's rightful place, Angel Island slowly began to rise out of the ocean, thin trials of water reaching up toward the large land mass as it rose, as if desperately trying to hang onto it reluctant to let it go. A soft groaning filled the air as the island ascended high and higher, finally disappearing above a low flying cloud back, fresh cold air whipping the island. Knuckles breathed it in deep, a sense of satisfaction filling his being.

"I don't understand how you can stand it here." Rouge said with a smile, leaning against one of the ruined stone pillars scattered around the ruins. The Echidna shot her a side glance.

"Are you still here?" He asked; sitting down on the top of the shrine's steps as the Island finally resumed its orbit over the Earth, hovering just out of sight behind the clouds. The bat took his statement with gentle humour, striding over and kneeling beside him. Knuckles narrowed an eye at her, forced his mouth into a frown. She simply smiled at him. "Your jobs done, the Island's floating again. Report back to the Pres and get out of my face." Rouge blinked.

"Well, the President wanted to know if you'd allow a military presence on the island." Knuckles' eyes shot wide open and he stared at her in disbelief.

"Say what?!" He asked loudly, nearly falling down the steps in surprise. "No freakin' way!" Rouge flapped her wings and hovered up, sitting down on the top of one of the pillars, a seductive look on her face.

"Though you'd say that."

"This island is sacred ground. My people tried that exact same thing and were destroyed for the sacrilege. As Guardian, it's my duty to make sure that the same mistake is never repeated." Rouge let him rave on for a while about ancient duty and all that, before butting in.

"Well, would you permit a small tracking station placed on the edge of the island to monitor the Egg moon. You'll hardly know it's there." Knuckles clenched a fist, clenching his teeth. "It's just this island is a far better station than any satellite we have that isn't being terminated by the Eggman Empire. We just want to use the islands orbit to track the Empire's movements." Knuckles was furious that she'd even suggested it. He'd been fighting off developers on his original world for years who wanted to turn the island into some kind of resort and now this human organisation wanted to put some kind of presence here. He'd seen their bases and wasn't prepared to have one on the island.

"All right you can have your tacking device." He said with an annoyed growl, realizing that she wasn't going to leave unless he gave her a piece of good news to go with. "I'll think about that base, but don't get your hopes up." Rouge's smile grew into an erotic smirk. "Now get lost." Rouge said nothing; she simply spread her wings and let the updraft carry her up into the cloud banks, disappearing into a dark shape that vanished amongst the clouds. Knuckles stared after her, before crossing his arms and muttering to himself…"Women!"

* * *

"Extraordinary." Chuck exclaimed for the sixth time that afternoon, the ruined form of Metal Sonic lying on the table in front of him. Bits and pieces from the robots frame which had been damaged beyond repair lay on the floor around, replacement parts and other large pieces of metallic equipment were being brought up into Chuck's room by Tanaka, who did not appreciate what this experience was doing to his back. The armoured blue skin on the top part of Metal's head had been removed, allowing access to the optical devices that produced the red glow and the electronic brain itself, which Chuck was carefully studying, trying not to disturb anything that might be important. The way he was laid out, pieces of him laying scattered around, it looked more like he was having an autopsy than a repair job. Even now though, his very presence radiated a certain feeling of dread that Tails was not altogether comfortable with. "I know this thing nearly killed us all, but I can't help being impressed by the circuitry and design of this android. "Incredible, its miles ahead of anything currently available, even in its tattered shape!" Tails looked up from the makeshift blueprint of the robot they'd drawn up after close inspection of its metallic frame.

"Marry it already." He said with a groan before turning back. "Why do you think Sonic what's this guy repaired anyway?" He put his pen down on the desk, staring off into space for a brief moment. "Seems like a bad idea to me. If I had a say in it, Metal here would be thrown in the nearest dumpster and that would be the end of it."

Chuck laughed to himself, picking up Metal's arm, inspected the cracks along the blue metallic skin. Without warning one of the talons on the hand fell off, landing on the table with a loud clank.

"Probably best to start research into alternate construction materials." Chuck added, taking a second look at the rust creeping into the framework in every corner and joint.

* * *

It was nearing five when Chris came by the gates leading into the Thorndyke estate. The sun was still high in the sky; although the faint wisps of clouds I the sky had a tint of orange on their outlines. This north district of Station Square had been left undamaged by Metal Overlord's attack, remaining intact and completely unblemished. In the front Garden, Creem and Cheese were playing a thick flower bed of tulips, while Vanila sat on a bench talking with Chris' mom, Sara. **_(I have no idea what Chris' moms real name is so I'm just calling her Sera.)_** A large silver plate with a tea set placed on the grass. Despite her hectic lifestyle of filming movies on location, she did enjoy the occasional relaxing snack outside on the lawn. A small portable TV sat on a white metal stool just in front of them.

"Ah Chris, good to see you home." She said when she saw her son approach up the drive. Chris gave her a hug before noticing a man at the far end of the garden tending to the rose bushes.

"When did we get a Gardener?" He asked gesturing to the unfamiliar figure in a white overall and black boots, his head hidden by a straw hat. Sra turned to give the man a fleeting glance.

"Oh him, your Grandfather hired him to take care of the garden near his garage. I must say though, he does do quite a good job with the roses." Chris wasn't really paying attention to his mother's words as he made his way across the lawn toward his Grandpa's garage with his bag strung over one arm, briefly wondering who Chuck and Tails were doing deciphering Metal Sonic's design. Chris didn't know exactly why Sonic wanted him repaired but to be honest he was curious to see what they could do with his remains. As he was passing the gardener, heading toward the side door, Chris caught sight of the mans face. With blonde hair, sea blues eyes and pale skin

"Mr. Stuart?" Chris exclaimed as the new gardener turn to face him. Sure enough it was his teacher, now clad in overalls, plastic boots and a straw hat, a shovel in one hat and a watering can in the other. His glasses placed inside his left breast pocket.

"Oh hello Chris." He said simply with a smile. Chris stared at him dumbfounded for second, arms at his side in astonishment, hardly managing words, before he managed to stutter…

"What are you doing here?" Stuart hesitated, looking back at bushes behind him.

"Taking care of your Roses, you've got a nasty Aphid infestation." Then he realized what Chris actually meant. "Oh right, well I'm sort of between Jobs at the moment, your Grandfather offered me a job tidying up your garden." Chris was left staring in utter disbelief.

"Right…" He managed to say after a while, quickly disappearing into his grandfather's garage with a stunned expression on his face. Stuart watched him go, then went back to working on the roses. Once he was sure that he was not being watch, he pushed his sleeve back and began to whisper into his watch.

"This is Agent codename Aphid. Have infiltrated Thorndyke residence, awaiting further instructions." There was a brief silence before someone on the other end replied over the small but powerful radio contained inside.

"Roger that, continue your cover identity and report back anything suspicious." Stuart nodded to himself.

"Roger, over and out." He pushed his sleeve back just as Sara looked his way to see how he was getting on and quickly went back to the roses.

"I wonder where Charles found such an exquisite gardener anyway?" She asked Vanilla.

* * *

Doctor Ivo. Robotnik, better known as Doctor Eggman, turned the monitor detailing the news front of him off, a frown over his face. The computer screen directly in front of him showed the Egg moons factories in full swing, manufacturing new robotic armies, weapons and artillery.

The defeat of the Egg fleet would mean little in the long run. Once Metal Sonic had been dealt with, regaining control of the Eggman Empire's computer systems hadn't been difficult. It was his destiny to rule this world. The cities and armies of the nations would fall and upon their ashes, an empire of metal would arise. His Empire, an empire that would rule the universe from this world, spreading out to conquer the far reaches of the cosmos. There was just one major thing standing in his way.

Despite all the fighting talk the nations of the world did, the only real thing that would prove a problem was a blue hedgehog. That much had been proved to him now, take out him, and the rest would fall like dominos.

His forces however has been depleted and he would not be able to make a successful military campaign until he built them up again, which would take some time. He leaned back in his chair, one finger and thumb to his chin. He was inside his personal chambers on the Egg moon, waiting for the report from Decoe that the security grid had been updated as he requested. Another monitor showed production of Dread noughts, the large robotic soldiers Eggman often used for heavy lifting jobs. He had scrapped the clumsy design of the Eggpawn and was now into mass production of these large, slower, but far more effective units. Equipping them with battle tactics and advanced weaponry, to improve their effectiveness in the field. New types of mobile artillery robots were also being manufactured, larger, faster and better armoured then their predecessor units. As soon as his forces were ready, he would wage war on the world and this time, he would succeed. The theme was very much, _no more mister nice guy! _

The chamber was a large oval shaped room, the walls and ceiling a mess of wires and pipes, the floor made from segmented pieces of metal. In front of him was a large monitor and control panel, most of the wires leading into the back. The only light in the room came from the screen in front. What Eggman really needed was Sonic removed before he attempted any sort of large scale attack. He couldn't rely on any robot to take care of something this important; the whole fiasco with Metal Sonic had proved that. No, he needed a professional. Someone experienced in assignation, hunting and tracking. His hands ran over the keyboard and he pulled up his registration files, those he had gathered over the years with his encounters with various groups on both Mobius and Earth, and now the one world.

"Ah now he looked promising." He said with a smile, his eyes glinting behind his glasses. The file he pulled up was for a mysterious bounty hunter wanted for crimes across the globe. An accomplished thief as well by the look of it. Experienced hunter too, records showing that he once tracked an escaped convict across fifty miles of swamp land filled with quick sand and sink holes just to put a bullet in his head. Eggman stared at the picture of a bust that came with the information. This bounty hunter was a feral creature, with thick purple fur and a white muzzle and chest. His deep flaxen yellow eyes had an evil glare to them that even Eggman would slightly unnerving. On top of his head, pushing to large pointed ears down was a brown canvas hat, tilted down so it covered one eye. There was a large grin on his face, one large sharp tooth protruding over his lip.

"Fang." Eggman said to himself, reading the name at the top of the file. His smile grew into a large grin. "Yes he dose indeed look promising."

* * *

(Flip card 1: Amy Rose)

**_Commercial break)_**


	17. Episode 55, part 2

(Flip card 2: Fang the Sniper.)

* * *

Area 99:

The President hadn't had slept in over forty eight hours, his shoulders were aching and still he wasn't half way through the work being piled on his desk. It wasn't bad enough he had the clean up on the Station Square bay to attend to, but also the oversee of new diplomatic relations with the new landmasses that appeared on Earth a month ago. Since most of the landmasses were appearing off the coast of America, he had the extensive duty of opening up dialogue with their people. The Russians and the Japanese were doing the same with the large land mass that appeared off their eastern shores. Now the President had had to attend a meeting about rebuilding the militaries numbers after half their air force got destroyed by Metal Overlord, presently he was being lead by the defensive secretary and his personal assistant, Christina Cooper, to see the latest development of Project _Giant Wing_. The Flag ship of the Egg fleet had been far too large to transport, so as much of the ships software and design was copied, as much salvaged as possible before they destroyed it. Although admittedly it took a lot of demolition charges to accomplish this. The rest of the Egg fleet, what they could pull up from the bay at least, was nearby in separate hangers at the base. Already, new robotics technology was being developed using these new resources. Soon, their current weapons capabilities would match those of the Eggman Empire.

The President had already seen the new robot foot soldiers due to be put into the military sometime within the next mouth. They were based around the Laser hunter design, but with far greater fire power and were able to move a great deal more faster.

Two missiles struck their intended Targets, the smouldering remains falling to the ground. Those two were the final ones and so Omega deactivated his combat mode.

"Very good, it seems the new combat systems are working fine Omega." One of the technicians said, congratulating the large battle android. Once the new battle systems had been developed using the new technology available, Omega had been upgraded for better durability, speed, endurance and above all, fire power. Presently, he was their single greatest robot, and their only example of working artificial intelligence, since the remains of Metal Sonic had mysterious vanished without a trace. They had tried to duplicate his own design, without success however. He was simply too complex and advanced, not to mention he seemed to be a one of a kind fluke in design work. Omega was a logical thinker, and he saw logic in staying with the human military. They were Eggman's enemies and they treated him like a person and not a thing. That made him, if they dare use the word, _feel_ happy.

"Ok Omega, now we'll try the speed run." Another technician, called over, switching the battle simulation area's setting from strength to speed.

"Affirmative." Omega replied, switching to speed mode, legs sinking inside his body two sets of wheels projecting out of the bottom of each foot. His large arms swinging around in front of him, creating a very _tank_ like appearance. The targets, large straw dummies tried to churning projectiles flew up in ranks, simulating an assault from the air. Omega's arms swung completely around, two missiles flying down their length, impacting two of them as they soured overhead. Another three targets flying from the left hand side, but anticipating the attack, the battle android swung his entire upper body to the side, streams of bullets riddling the targets.

"Rather Impressive." The President remarked, staring out the training arena from an overhead catwalk as Omega eliminated target after target. "But I'm here to see the results of Giant Wing." The secretary of defence, a short, dark skinned male with long hair, dressed in a military uniform, chuckled to himself.

"If you wouldn't mind directing your attention to the ceiling sir?" He said between laughs, gesturing upward. The president looked up and stepped back in astonishment. The entire ceiling of the bases largest bunker, which was high enough not to be noticed, was hidden behind the enormous bulk of a giant metal object, floating high above their heads, suspended by hundreds of metal cables and scaffolding. Its metal skin was a bronze colour, with several small, round porthole like entrance points running along its side. It was completely egg shaped, with two large engine like structures on the underside of a large wing that stretched out as far as the hanger could go. A lot of technicians and scientists were on the suspended catwalks, working over the colossal machine as fast as they could go. "What you are seeing Mister President is a quarter of Giant Wing." The defence secretary said proudly, staring up at it with a large smile. The president was left staring in awe. "The remaining pieces should be complete some time this year. Then all we have to do is get them together and then it's a bit like a trillion dollar jigsaw puzzle."

"I saw the blue prints." The President began. "But nothing could have prepared me for this. It's amazing."

"The technicians would be glad to you say that sir."

"Just …what does this do?"

"This is a thermal regulation engine. A steam powered technology we were able to pioneer from the Downed Flagship. It's simple, yet amazingly affective." A loud spout at the back end of the colossal machine spouted a thick cloud of white steam had faded before it reached the ground, leaving a hot humid feeling in the air, a thin grey mist hung like silk curtains around them. "Here's something I know your going to enjoy." He added with a smirk. "This technology is easy to manufacture and is pollutant free. All it requires to work, is water." The President's face went even more pale and he withdrew a small napkin. He gently padded his brow.

"Pollutant free…technology man has been searching for since the effects of pollution were first discovered." He said hardly able to form coherent words. "This is…the greatest discover in the history of mankind. It'll lift us into a new technological age…" He paused, putting a forefinger and thumb to his chin, the wild spark of ambition in his eyes. "If this doesn't win me the next election, nothing will."

* * *

"Hey Grandpa." Chris announced, pushing his way up through the trap door into Chuck's laboratory. He had just enough time to duck as a smouldering piece of Metal Sonic's armour went flying over his head. His grandfather yelped in pain, shaking his hand, blowing on it occasionally.

"Yeow that's hot!" He commented, holding his hand under his arm pit, hopping up and down like some deranged kangaroo. Tails looked back blankly at him, the turned back to his blue prints. He rubbed something out with the eraser at the end of his pencil and replaced it with a single note stating, _thermal regulation device._

"I take it you've not had much luck." Chris added, climbing inside, picking up the piece of armour with a cloth and placing it back on the table.

"Tanaka, an ice pack please." Chuck asked their butler, who nodded politely with a flare of unrivalled dignity and then disappeared. "You could say that Chris. I hate to admit it, but Eggman's technology is a little complex for a single scientist like myself to understand, let out repair or copy." He sighed and gave the dissected corpse of the android a long glance. "But it is rather impressive and I go enjoy a good challenge." Tanaka re-appeared with a ice pack and a band aid and while he and Chuck were talking, Chris sat himself down at his grandfather's computer and brought up his online diary.

He had used a different name on his user page. He didn't want visitors to visit the site simply because he was the famous Chris ThornDyke, loyal friend of the world renowned hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. He logged himself in and prepared another page to write. Chris paused, realizing that he didn't exactly who what to say. So much had happened, so much had changed. his fingers hovered anxiously above the keyboard, itching to start writing. But he didn't know what to say, what would be relevant?

He thought back to the night when he had been lying in bed, just a normal kid in a normal life. Then, splash! This blue animal drops itself inside his swimming pool and nothing is the same again. Infiltrating Area 99, defeating Doctor Eggman for the first time. Collecting the chaos emeralds, only to fall for Eggman's trick, nearly handing the madman ultimate power. A water demon invading station square, reducing it to near ruin. Everything involving the ARK incident too, how the colony nearly impacted the earth and finally the Rise of the Metal Overlord and the final useage of Chaos Control that left Earth and Mobius fused, possibly forever. Chris realized then and there that there were no words capable of described events such as those. So instead, he typed the only word he knew capable of even coming close.

"Damn."

* * *

It was nearing sunset, the fading light casting long shadows over the reconstruction workers presently shifting the rubble, removing the last debris of the collapsed building that Metal Overlord had attack. Luckily, most of the citizens of Station Square had been outside at the time and so there hadn't been, miraculously, a single fatality. Although in other places in the city, some people had not been so lucky.

Staring out at all this destruction now, Sonic could plainly see what kind of chaos would have been unleashed on the world had Shadow and himself not stopped Metal Overlord in time. His thoughts were pushed aside however by her presence.

He had come dangerously close to kissing her, even wanting to! Had Metal Sonic not otherwise preoccupied them, Sonic could very well see it happening. Well, there was certainly no denying what had nearly happened. It was on both their minds.

Amy sat with him on the top of a large building, one of the few not to be damaged by Metal Overlord's attack. She had, for once let her head quills out of their normal pattern, allowing them to gently sway in the mid after noon breeze. Sonics own quills were naturally loose and swayed with them.

Amy was a strong girl, both physically and mentally and that was probably what Sonic admired most about her. She could take care of herself in nearly any situation.

Both tried to open their months to speak, but found they couldn't muster the words so said nothing. Eventually it became just enough to sit there in each other's company.

Amy began to wonder if she would ever have Sonic's devotions completely to herself. Probably not, Sonic wasn't that that sort of person and to be perfectly honest, neither was she. However, she was closer today to her goal then she had ever been; now the possibility of her greatest ambition being realized was higher than ever, she couldn't give up now. But perhaps however, she should change tactics. She looked at Sonic, an idea hatching her head.

"You know Sonic…" Amy eventually picked up the courage to start speaking. Sonic turned to give her his attention. She had an unusual smirk on her face. "You haven't been for you night run yet." Sonic blinked in confusion.

"Traditionally, a night run occurs at night." Suddenly he finally realized exactly what Amy was hinting at. "Oh." He said to himself, his eyes sparkling almost in realization. A nervous smile crossed his face, but the offer was far too tempting to simply pass up. She flipped himself up onto his head and offered her his hand. Instead of taking it, she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Anyone watching would only have been able to see a blue blur darting down the side of the building with a pint highlight trailing after it. At first, Amy had to close her eyes, the wind stinging her eyes. She could feel the very surface of the building underneath Sonic's feet, the shockwave passing through his body and into hers. She managed to open one eye and finally, she could see the world from Sonic's point of view. A strange inspiring blur, the sound sounds the lashing wind and the distant sounds that didn't rely on proximity to be heard, the call of distant sea birds, the constant honking of cars in the congested streets at the other end of the city, even the daily bubble of conversations. Finally they reached the grounds and they were into the streets, racing through a maze of tight turning corners and long runway like streets. The lights on street lamps and through windows were so blurred they appeared as distant and moveable as fireflies.

"Sonic, I love you!" She cried, expecting her voice to be drown on the winds. Sonic however had sharper hearing than most and heard ever bit of it. He'd heard her say it many times before, but there was something different about this time though. Something that forced butterflies into his stomach.

They came souring out onto the highway, which was surprisingly clear of traffic. The sun set completely, and the moonlight began to gently illuminate the ground in front of them, adding a soft silver glow to the tarmac. Amy hugged him tighter, a bright smile on her face. There had been no need for words, a bond had been made anyway.

"Chuck was right." Sonic began, looking back toward her with a smile. She looked at him questioningly. "Can't you feel it Amy? We're home." The pink hedgehog looked out across the bay as the road curved along a cliff path toward the Mystic Ruins. The familiar landmass radiated a certain, undeniable feeling that was spreading out from it, engulfing the very city it seemed. The feeling, felt homely. Then it finally struck her, exactly what Sonic meant. They were home.

"Hey Sonic." Someone called and a blurred red object racing up beside them. Sam honked the horn of his car, smirking at them with a thumbs up. His new car was old and red with a white underbelly, a glass cockpit and side wings, the end of large rocket engine jutting out of the back.

"Oh you again." The blue hedgehog remarked in a flat tone, eyebrows level. "What do you want?"

"What do I always want?" Sam asked back, his car edging forward slightly, the engine purring loudly. "To prove I'm the fastest thing on the planet!" Sonic shook his head with a loud groan. "So come on Sonic, first one out of the city and to the other side of the desert and back wins." Sonic was about to answer when Amy butted in for him.

"He accepts your challenge." She said bluntly.

"I do?" He asked in surprise. Amy replied with a faithful smile and a gaze from her warm, green eyes. There was no arguing with them. "Alright then." He turned to give Sam a confident grin. "Let's race!" He added, before pouring on the speed and racing off while Amy pulled the skin below her eye down and put her tongue out toward the human racer. Sam chuckled under his breath, an evil smile on his face.

"On it's on now hedgehog!" He said to himself, before pushing the accelerator to the floor and racing after the hedgehog, becoming a red blur. As they became two blurs on the horizon, the Mystic ruins landmass seemed to glow in the moonlight.

* * *

"I hear you're the best as what you do." Eggman said flatly, his chair turning to face the furry, who simply stood there with his arms crossed. Eggman had been expecting his visitor some time. If Fang was as good as his record dictated, all Eggman had had to do was put out would he wanted to employ his services and he would come to him. Of course, Eggman wasn't really as this safe house in the capital city, the thing that was actually sitting in that chair was a digital representation of him, a hologram created by a hidden projector Fang had done exceptionally well to get past all his security, unnoticed. Thius was promised sign.

"For the right price." The furry replied, an evil glint in his yellow eyes. Eggman examining him further, he was the exact match to his file image he was a Weasel, about as tall as Sonic, his canvas hat making him seem slightly taller. A large belt wrapped around his waist with an overly large silver buckle at the front. A long purple tail protruded out the back, but half way along its length there was a kink in it and the tail from that point on was perfectly vertical along his back. On his feet was a pair of large white boots with a yellow toe end and heal. He remained hidden in the shadows, his purple fur only emerging in the light in patches.

"You'll be paid." Eggman put in, leaning back, his large moustache quickly shifting under his nose. The hologram flicking for a moment. "Quite extensively, all you need to do is kill one person." Fang narrowed an eye in curiosity.

"Exactly how much are we taking about here?" Eggman didn't say anything. He simply turned a black case which lay on the desk in front of him around, flipping it open. Inside laid piles of green notes, each one with the figure 100 on them. Fang simply stared at it, mouth hung open.

"This is only half of what you'll be given." Eggman replied with a smug grin. He snapped the case shut. "But you'll not see a dime until the target I want eliminated is lying bleeding at my feet." Fang hesitated only briefly, slightly overcome by the sheer amount of cash he was set to earn.

"Who's the poor guy then?" He asked, gaining an evil smile, his large tooth overhanging his lips. Eggman clicked his fingers and the computer screen behind him flipped on, showing the image of a blue hedgehog with red sneakers and emerald green eyes. "Oh…him." Fang commented, putting his hands on his hips. Other screen showed the various battles the Eggman Empire had had with the blue rodent, showing the extent of his speed, agility and skill. A deeper, more cruel smile crossed the weasels face. "No need to worry about the thing doc." Without warning, the weasel tore out his gun and fired a shot directly toward Eggman. The bullet wised through the air, missed the scientist, rebounded off the wall behind him and shot back toward Fang. The weasel simply raised his foot and kicked the bullet away, directing it toward the wall on his left hand side. It impacted, striking a dart board with Sonic's poster directly between the hedgehog's eyes, a small smoking hole beginning to slowly eat away at the paper. Fang grinned, sliding his gun back into his sheath. "Your hedgehog problems are officially over!"

* * *

**End lyrics**

Mirai

Are you prepared to go on the journey?  
Just one more morning to come,  
Put on a new shirt and,  
Sneak out into the night,

Today, the city won't sleep either,  
It will just watch quietly,  
What you and I will start!

To be shine, to be free,  
Do not be bewildered,  
The waves of time are strong but gentle,  
Very soon, very soon, I'm going out to meet you,  
Together, our world will shine,

To be shine, to be free,  
Don't be frightened,  
The waves of time are strong but gentle,

We'll meet in that far and distant city,  
Very soon, very soon, I'm going out to meet you,  
Let's go and find our future.

* * *

**(Let us all reflect for a moment on Sonic X and it's long run on Japanese TV.)**

Ok, enough of that!

**_QandA_**

1) Why did I call the original world Mobius even though the word is never so much as mentioned in Sonic X?:

A: because I had to come up with a name for the original world…it got kind of old calling it…_the original world _all the time. Mobius is sort of traditional in Sonic comics and old games so the name came up. When I say Mobius...I don't mean the world featured in Archie OR Fleetway. I'm refeering to the SEGAsonic universe.

2) Why did you kill off Bokkun?:

A: Because I hate him. He and Decoe and Becoe play the parts of Coconuts, Scratch and Grounder, pathetic sidekicks that made Eggman a complete joke in the series. I just didn't get rid of the two robots because I could use them later.

3) Wah, no Chocola?!?:

A: Why put him in? He is, to be blunt, a pointless Chao you only see a few times in the Chao races. So I replaced him with Cheese.

4) Why did Metal Sonic use the Master Emerald to transform, he didn't do that in the game?:

A: Because in the game, Metal Sonic transformed on a whim and just looked scary, didn't do anything evil. Heroes, while having superior style of gameplay and the long anticipated return of Metal Sonic, had a pathetically weak storyline. I had to beef it out with stuff that actually made sense.

5) You cut out the Frog forest and haunted house levels, why:

A: Now who would go racing through a haunted house at a time when the world was in peril. Besides in the game, one second they're inside a haunted house and the next they're at the top of the Egg Fleet. O0?

6) Why the SonAmy moments?

A: because that was in the Anime and it was one of the few bits from it's rather anticlimactic ending I wanted to save. That, and I like the couple.

7) Why leave it on a cliff hanger?

A: Look at SatAM, they left that on a cliff hanger and it's never been more popular. Besides, I do plan on doing a Sonic X series 2 project….(Yes, you guessed it, I am a Sonic X fanatic.) Watch this space!!!


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